Sokka: Master of the Black Sword
by The Jade Knight
Summary: My name is Sokka. I have been called many things: idiot, genius, Snoozles. But I am still just a guy with a boomerang in a world of mysterious magics. This is a story of a warrior, four forbidden scrolls, a white wolf and a clouded heart -Tokka-
1. Training

_Disclaimer: i do not own anything, it all belongs to its respective owners. i am a poor student, don't sue me, all you'll get is a banana and some pocket lint._

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My name is Sokka. I have been called many things in my short years; idiot, genius, Snoozles, but I am still just a guy with a boomerang in a world of mysterious magics. This is the story of a warrior, four forbidden scrolls, a white wolf and a clouded heart.

_**Relationships Thus Far: Tokka - Maiko - Kataang**_

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**Jade Knight AN:** This is the re-upload of this story. Its still the same tale, just with better grammar, spelling and a few more jokes.

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**Richard Caine Co-AN:** My name is Richard Caine; this is my first FFNet Story I've worked on, even though I've written quite a bit before. Jade Knight here was kind enough to let me get on board with his story as something inbetween a Beta and a co-author. Hopefully, everyone'll enjoy we've got planned. Reviews are of course always welcome; they fuel the creative process, you know. Most flames will be politely ignored; the rest will be met with overwhelming force.

(snerk)

Anyhow, I'm not one to care too much, and I'm not _that_ longwinded.

Just so you know, the Knight and I have made a few continuity tweaks. Specifically with ages. Notably, in this line Toph is around 14, the same(ish) age Katara, Azula is about 16. The guys are pretty much the same, with Aang being much closer to 13 than 12. So don't attack us on the age thing. We already know, believe me. This story's rated T due to some quite mature themes that will surface every once and a while. Mostly it'll be violence-level related, but as we haven't written the whole thing yet, we can't say for sure. You've been warned kids; you're on your own recognizance.

That being said, kick back and enjoy the ride.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is the property of Paramount. The Old Ones, the Gel-Hassad, the Incarna, and other original content is ours. If you want it, just ask. We writing _fan_fiction for crying out loud! But we do like to be informed. It's... unpleasant to find someone using your stuff without permission.

-R. Caine

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**KathyKatInAHat Beta Note: **_Hi everyone! I'm Kitty, the new beta...not to be confused with Genzou. I'm excited to be on this team of amazing (yet a bit more than slightly crazy) authors, even if I have to get out the white coats every so often. Sigh. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter as much as I did!_

_Enjoy!_

_-Kitty_

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_Curtain Up!_

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_**Sokka: Master of the Black Sword**

Author: The Jade Knight

Co-Author: Richard Caine

Beta: KathyKatInAHAt (A.K.A. Kitty)

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**-Tournament Saga-**

**Chapter 1**

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The Story of Sokka

Chapter 1: Training

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My name is Sokka; I am a warrior of the Southern Water Tribe. I have been called many things in my short years; idiot, genius, Snoozles. But I am still just a guy with a boomerang in a world of mysterious magics.

Things have been going badly for our little group for a while now. We are gaining more allies, my father's battle group for one. But it seems like every time we gain an ally, a city falls: Ba Sing Se, Omashu. The Northern Water tribe was almost wiped out. Too many of our friends have died trying to resist the oppression of the Fire Nation; it has to stop now. That is why I've started training hard every day, trying to become a master in my own craft. In a group of Element Masters, I must become just as powerful ... or fall behind.

But they are so strong. Each of them can take on twenty times their number and keep going, fifty times in Aang's case ... Toph too, she can be as scary as hell when she gets going. And then there's me. I have trouble defeating a handful of enemies.

This is unacceptable.

I have trained in the martial disciplines of many cultures; I have learned the ability of turning an enemies power against them from the Kyoshi warriors, the flow and grace from both the Northern and Southern Water tribes, and that's not to mention learning the controlled chaos of fire-style from Piando-sensei of the Fire Nation. But I am still not good enough, not strong enough. The others always have to look out for me, protect me. I am a man, and I don't mean to be sexist, but I was raised to believe it should be me protecting them.

It's agony knowing I am of no use.

Suddenly a voice penetrated my concentration. "Is he doing that again?" said Aang.

I was sitting on the ground a few feet away from the fire we had going last night, the smell of soot and charcoal dominating my nose, reminding me that we were constantly in danger being inside the Fire Nation borders. It only hardened my resolve. We were still in the heart of a thick forest mostly populated by spruce trees, so the smell of pine seemed to be ever present. Beneath me, the ground of our meager encampment was fairly flat thanks to Toph, and I could only feel a few stones among the fallen pine needles. In the distance I could smell a faint trace of water and wet stone; a waterfall. I couldn't hear it so it must have been a few miles away, almost directly northeast of our position.

That is the peace of meditation. It had been strange the first few times I had achieved it. It was like my mind had unchained itself from my body. I was still there, but it was like my body had fallen asleep without taking my mind along. I found it nearly impossible to move, and my breathing and heartbeat slowed down to a slumbering pulse. It was very... enlightening, I guess you could say. I would become hyper-aware of my surroundings in that state. I could hear the individual chirps of the birds, the scratching of squirrels' claws on the branches of trees. I could even hear the slightest changes of the wind as it passed through the tree branches. It was supposed to be a great way to think, and I could see how.

"Is he sleeping like that again?" I heard Katara ask, and the sound of rustling cloth drew my attention as she rolled up her sleeping bag. Knowing we would have to start moving again I slowly started to bring myself out of the meditative trance.

I chose a point of my body; this time it was my left thigh. One of the few rocks on the ground was lightly pressing into my skin. I focused on the uncomfortable sensation, pushing everything else out of my mind. I had reached a point where I could block out pretty much anything except the most painful sensations, but it seemed that the best way to bring myself out of a meditation was discomfort. I felt the sounds and smells of the forest dull even as I began to feel my mind and body once again become one. My senses weren't quite as sharp now, but I still remembered which way the waterfall was. That was going to be our next destination. We had been traveling for a few days non-stop now, and we could all use a cool soak. It might just have been my imagination, but ever since we crossed the Fire Nation border the air got crazy dry.

"Hey Snoozles, wake up. We need to get going," yelled Toph from somewhere to my right. I often wondered if the heightened senses I had when I meditated were akin to what Toph had all the time; knowing where everything was, feeling the flow of the world. I put it from my mind as something to ask later. Then I opened my eyes and gave into the urge to yawn.

"Sleep well?" Katara asked as she threw her sleeping bag up to Aang, who was standing on top of Appa putting away our gear.

"Fairly, but I told you before I wasn't sleeping. I was meditating." I sighed as everyone burst into laughter; they never believed me. But that was fine, I would prove my worth one day soon. I sat stiff-backed in a lotus position, my legs crossed beneath me. My hands rested palms up on my knees and my black sword was placed across them. I gently pulled one hand free, letting the tip of the blade balance on my knee, and reached for the scabbard lying parallel to me. Sheathing my blade I stood up and stretched, my back popped a few times, a relaxing coldness set into my spine. Then I bent down to pick up my gear.

I had rolled up my sleeping bag before I had meditated; if I hadn't I would have been kicked in the head for 'sleeping' while they prepared to leave. I usually got up an hour or so earlier then everyone else these days. How, I didn't really know. I'm not typically what you would call a morning person, I like my sleep as much as the next guy, but lately I always seemed to be rising with the sun.

Reaching down again I grabbed my ... I don't know what you would call it. Shoulder-warmer? I don't know, it went over my shoulders and tied around the neck. It was part of the Fire Nation clothes we wore to disguise ourselves. I looked down at myself.

The Fire-Nation really liked the colors crimson, black and brown. I wore a brown button down shirt that reached down to mid-thigh. I liked the cut of the shirt; it was like my Water Tribe clothes. Under the long shirt I had black knee high shorts, and a pair of black and crimson sandals, and over my waist a black belt was clinched tight. I think it was mostly decorative, like the cloth wrist guards. It didn't really seem to hold my pants up. And then there was my, also crimson, neck ... thingy.

"Stop playing with your cape and help pack," called Toph as she passed her things to Aang. Then she started tying on her own ... now that was a cape. It draped over her shoulders, tied into her belt and fell down her back, almost to her knees! If that wasn't a cape I didn't know what was. But I have to say it did suit her, that long red slip dress with that gold tiara that she wore. It made her look stunning, and other people would probably notice it too if she just tied back her hair. She had the most beautiful misty eyes. Suddenly I realized I had been staring at Toph again and quickly shook it off. It wasn't my fault, I just had a habit of forgetting what I was doing when I looked at her for too long.

"Its not a cape." I protested. Well it wasn't. I didn't know what it was, but it wasn't a cape. And it sure as hell didn't look any worse then Aang's Fire Nation school clothes or Katara's robe-y thing. I didn't really like that thing on her very much. It showed way more then I - as a brother - was comfortable with. But if I said anything about it she would try to drown me.

"Then what is it?" asked Katara, grinning with a hand on her hip. I got the strangest feeling that she knew something I didn't. Bloody confusing women and their mind games.

"Its, uh. A shoulder warmer." I said, knowing I was defeated even before I opened my mouth. Everyone started to laugh again, but I just shrugged it off and started to tie back my hair. After a few seconds I had it bunched in the back and looked down for the Fire emblem I used to hold it there. I scraped a few pine needles to the side with the tip of my sandal. I thought I had left it right there.

"Looking for your hair barrette Snoozles?" Toph teased. I looked over and saw my hair clip in her hands.

"Its a hair clip," I huffed stomping over to where Toph stood grinning mischievously at me. Even before I got to her I knew what was coming. We went through this at least once a week. I stopped right in front of her and considered her for a second. But she just stared through me with her sightless eyes from behind her bangs. I don't know if I could have gotten the clip out of her hands, my reflexes had gotten much better lately. Maybe if I really tried.

I reached out to it with a lazy movement and of course Toph immediately rocketed fifteen feet in the air on a pillar of stone.

"Ha ha, very funny," I said, turning my back and sticking my nose in the air for effect. "I was going to schedule some time off so that we can get cleaned up and have a little fun at the waterfall... but I guess you'd rather play games here." I knew it had worked even before I felt the column of earth slam back into the ground.

"What, waterfall? Where?" Aang shouted from on top of Appa. I ignored him for a second and turned back to face Toph, who also seemed to be excited- I guess even she thought there was a point where it crossed over from 'a health coating of earth' to 'just plain dirty'.

"Alright," she said, then she handed me the hair clip back. I was just trying to figure out how long we could spend at the waterfall when her rough, thin fingers brushed my calloused ones. All my calculations and planning vanished from my minds eye as I completely blanked out. Then the contact was broken and I realized once again I had a vacant expression on my face. 'No wonder people think I'm stupid,' I thought as I clipped my hair in place and made sure the fire emblem was the right way.

"So where is this waterfall, did you find it on one of the maps?" Katara asked as she climbed up Appa to get into the saddle. Was it still called a saddle? It was kind of big; maybe it had another name when it was that large.

"No, it's not on any maps, at least not the ones we have. That means it small, so we won't be bothered," I said nervously; they wouldn't believe me if I told them the truth.

"Then how did you find it?" Aang asked as Toph ran past me and clambered up Appa to take her regular place holding onto one of the decorative rings. Flying must be a scary thing for her, knowing she's hundreds of feet in the air, and truly blind. It must be one of the most frightening things in her world, except maybe deep water. I wish I could be that brave, to get up every morning and place my life in the hands of others while being rendered nearly completely helpless. Suddenly I realized I had zoned out again and they were still waiting for me to answer. Damn it.

"Oh I know," shouted Aang. "He heard it while he was meditating." This brought on a fresh round of laughter.

"Actually I smelled it," I said softly, but apparently they could still hear it. Now Katara was laughing so hard she was crying and Toph looked like she was about to fall off of Appa. "I don't see what was so funny." I said as I got up and dropped into the saddle near the back like always.

"It's that way," I said flatly, pointing northeast.

Aang managed to gasp out; "Yipp yipp," and we were off.

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The wind blowing hard against my face was refreshing, until a gopher-dove almost dove down my throat. This of course brought on a new wave of laughter. 'Bloody monsters reveling in my pain' I thought as I rubbed my cheek where the small, fluffy yellow kamikaze had struck me. Then I sighed and laughed a little myself; we were on a very dangerous mission deep behind enemy lines, we needed a few laughs. And it was kind of funny.

"Only Sokka could find something to hurt him in the wide open sky," my sister mocked. Aang was giggling as he kept his eye out for the waterfall. I could smell it again, it wasn't far now.

"What did Sokka do now?" asked Toph with a smile. It was hard to remember sometimes that she was actually blind up here.

"I didn't do anything, a fluffy bird tried to commit suicide by throwing itself down my throat," I replied. "A little further to the east Aang, we're drifting off course."

"He ended up getting ninja kicked in the face by the poor little thing," Aang yelled from atop Appa's head as he flicked the reins a bit, re-directing Appa.

"'Poor little thing' my splintered Boomerang, it was a red-eyed monster shooting towards me like an flaming arrow," I cried, deciding I no longed thought it was funny.

"Ooh, poor baby. Do you want me to kiss it better?" asked Toph with a little giggle. My stomach did a back flip. Normally I would have come up with a fairly clever retort, but my mind did its white board impression again as my mouth opened a little. I cleared my throat, and said something that got the others laughing again. I really don't know what it was, but I found I really didn't care; my chest felt like it was filled with a rapidly expanding balloon and it was right then that I noticed how delicate and soft Toph's neck looked. I was gripped with the strongest urge to nibble on it, to see what sounds she might make.

"Oh my, I think you embarrassed him Toph. He's as red as an angry Firebender," Katara said with another of her 'I know something' grins.

Oh god, she couldn't suspect what I was just thinking could she? Now I felt ice water fill my insides as the though of an angry and offended Toph etched itself on my mind. She would be disgusted, spiteful, she would scream and rage at me. And then I would be left behind. Aang needed the girls as elemental teachers, but I was the dead weight of the group. If there were a problem I would be left behind, alone. I would never see any of them again.

Thankfully a distraction presented itself in the form of the waterfall. I pointed it out and Aang started to bring us down as I did my best to shake the cold fear that had filled me. Did I care for Toph? I cared for all of them; Katara was my sister and of course I felt a brotherly affection for her. And Aang was like both the younger and older brother I never had. As the only two men of the group, there were things we could only look to one another for.

But what about Toph?

I thought that I had developed a stronger and meaningful relationship with Suki recently. I guess you could say we were together, sort of. But ... then there were these feeling and thoughts I had about Toph. What were they about, wasn't I too old for her? I was two years older. But dad was seven years older then my mother.

'Yeah, but he wasn't sixteen,' a voice inside me called out.

'So, what does that have to do with anything?' I countered the voice. 'I may be young, but I have been through so much, I don't think I could have survived without maturing. I think...'

Maybe it was the danger that was making me think that way. Was I just trying to find some stability in this war, a raft in the raging ocean so to speak? Something to hold onto? A very vivid image of Toph in my arms passed my minds eye. I could almost feel how warm she would be.

'Wait,' commanded another voice in my growing chorus of me, myself, and I. 'We still haven't even figured out how we feel about Toph yet, aren't we getting a little ahead of ourselves?'

God damn it, there needs to be some sort of rule book on this crap. It's too bloody confusing. My internal dialogue wasn't really helping either. I was jarred out of my thoughts by Appa landing. Even before the fuzzy beast had all four paws on the ground, Aang had jumped into the water with a holler.

I watched Toph get up and slowly lower herself to the ground. It was probably the only time I could really look at her; I was too afraid of her 'seeing' me watch her when we were on the ground to do it. These precious few seconds between the others being out of sight and Toph setting foot on the ground were the only times I had to ... to do what? What did I expect to see?

I watched her, her misty eyes always seeming to look at everything without judging. I always thought they looked a little sad ... but that was stupid. Her long black bangs still hung in her face, giving her a mysterious sort of aura. She gripped a handful of Appa's fur as she continued down. She was a small girl, deceptively so. She was possibly the greatest Earthbender in the world, after all who else could bend metal? But she was still so tiny, sometimes I just wanted to take her in my arms and hold her tight, be consumed by the smell of her hair and the feel of her heartbeat.

I literally slapped myself for that thought; a moment later I felt the heat of a red hand shaped mark forming on my face.

"Sokka? Did you just slap yourself?" Aang asked from the middle of the little pool, a confounded expression on his face. I heard him, but it didn't register, as my mind was in too much turmoil. Instead I took in the sight of the waterfall. It was small, maybe fifty feet from the top to the little pool and river below. On either side were the chipped and rough gray walls of a short cliff. The waterfall itself was about thirty feet across at the top and the white water cascading down looked so inviting. At the bottom of the falls there were large stones worn flat by the years of relentless pounding. Add to it the overwhelming smell of water, stone and pine and you could almost forget you were in the Fire Nation.

It was very peaceful.

"Hey, Sokka. Your brain stop again?" called up Toph from somewhere around Appa's feet, I couldn't see exactly where because I was still sitting in the saddle like an idiot. With a furious blush that covered the handprint I grabbed the two bags that held the soaps and other cleaning whatnot we had for these little outdoor bath times. Tossing the brown one to Katara I slung the blue one over my shoulder and climbed down Appa's hairy side.

"C'mon Aang," I called, not looking back. From somewhere behind me I heard Toph ask Katara something in a hushed voice, but I paid it no mind and continued to walk along the stream. A minute later I heard Aang come running up behind me, Momo flying ahead scanning the ground for bugs to eat. When we had gone a fair distance we came to a bend in the stream and stopped just around it. I threw the bag of soap and little bottle of shampoo to Aang and scanned the trees on the other bank. I wasn't looking for enemies; after all, we blended in perfectly. If anyone came along they would just see some Firebenders, besides with Toph's unique abilities we would get a warning before anyone got close enough to pose a threat. I was looking for something else. My eyes settled on an ancient looking pine whose lower branches hung over the river.

That tree looked good. It had sturdy branches, many at nearly perfect right angles to the ground. I walked over to it as Aang stripped right down behind me and jumped into the stream naked, save for the bar of soap in his hand.

"Hey Momo, you want a scrub too?" he asked as the lemur flew in a tight circle over head. After being coaxed down the critter sat still on a rock as he got sudsed up, then became tired of sitting and dove into the water. Of course Aang quickly turned this into a game of who could splash the most. Needless to say in a matter of seconds I was soaked.

But it mattered not, I planned on having my own scrub down in a bit. I just wanted to get some training out of the way. No point in having a bath before the sweating started. I tested the branches of the likely looking tree and after making sure it could hold my weight I gripped it tight and pulled myself up. With a small amount of effort I hooked my legs onto the branch and let myself hang upside down for a moment. I glanced to my left and a dripping Momo was hanging next to me expectantly. I laughed a bit before tightening my stomach muscles and pulling my body up to my knees.

I let myself fall then started to raise back up, only this time I twisted to the right so that I could touch my left elbow to my right knee before I fell back down- the next time I twisted to the left so that I could touch my right elbow to my left knee. Over and over I repeated this, and each time the burning in my abdomen intensified until it reached a throbbing ache and I could not pull myself up again. Fifty six times today, two less then last time.

I needed to train more often. Grabbing the branch between my knees I twisted and dropped to the grass.

I looked behind me and saw that Aang still had a head full of soap that he had just dunked in the stream, and judging from the fact that he seemed to be about to assault Momo from underwater, using his shampoo bubbles as cover, I guessed I still had time. I brushed the sweaty hair out of my face; my short wolf-tail had come undone while I was upside down. Reaching up I took out the hair clip and let my hair fall down around my ears as I took a few breaths in preparation for the next exercise.

Turning to face the tree I bent down and placed both hands on the driest patch of dirt I could fine, and then I kicked off of the ground and held a wobbly handstand until my feet were leaning up against the rough bark. Making sure my feet could easily slide up and down but still maintain my balance I began to do push-ups. Up and down, over and over as the burn spread to my arms and chest, the training not only helped my body but the hard work brought peace to my mind.

A few minutes later the burn once again became too great to continue and I let myself drop to the ground. Forty-three, better then last time. But those last few felt a little wobbly; I'd need to work on balance later. Next I grasped the branch with both hands and started to do chin-ups.

For the better part of an hour I strength trained, until I burned all over in a very satisfying way and just laid on the damp grass for a short time. A bit later I finally got up and started to take off my shirt and ... shoulder warmer and draped them over the branch I had nearly stripped the bark from during my exercises.

Behind me I heard rather than saw the little wave of water that very deliberately tore its way down the stream against the current. Immediately Aang jumped out of the water and stared to get dressed. The wave was Katara's way of telling us male-folk that the girls were done bathing and that we were allowed to come back to the camp.

Grabbing the little green apple scented bar of soap out of the bag I waded into the cool water and sighed as it massaged my tight muscles, and I had gotten some pretty nice muscles lately. My arms were coming along nicely, and my chest was squaring off. And that's not to mention that I could now see the rough outline of my abs without flexing. I lathered the soap on my face and then moved down to my neck.

"Sokka, I'm going back now. You going to be okay alone?" Aang asked from the shore, I didn't looked because I would have gotten soap in my eyes.

"Yeah, I'll be along in a bit," I answered as I dove beneath the water to rinse my face. When I came back up Aang was gone but Momo was still sitting on the bank staring at me. Creepy little monkey, sometimes I wish I had eaten it back at the air temple. Well, not really. The little fuzz monster had grown on me.

I stood up to wash my chest and back, and found that Momo was staring very pointedly at my mid-section. I turned my back on him and continued. I may have grown to like the little thing, but I still thought he was creepy.

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I walked back to the camp a short time later fully dressed and dry to find Toph and Aang doing some crazy Earthbending. I don't know what it was meant to accomplish, all it seemed like they were doing was throwing the biggest rocks they could find at each other. A moment later I noticed Aang had a blind fold on and decided this was one of those times where I should get far away lest I would become smashed into pudding. Being sure not to look at Toph in case I blanked put again and got smashed I retrieved my black sword from the saddle that now laid on the ground. Aang had taken it off of Appa so that he could splash around too; a guttural roar from behind me showed that Appa was very appreciative.

I held the blade tightly in my hand as I walked away from the 'squish Sokka' zone over to a dry and peaceful spot near the tree line. Katara noticed that I was back and called out to me, but I just waved a greeting and prepared. The others may not believe I was actually training, they probably just thought I was fooling around with my sword. But I did it everyday I could, and it helped sharpen my skills.

Firstly I unsheathed my sword and took my starting stance, blocking out the world and concentrating fully on what I was doing. Sliding my right foot back behind me I squared it off and placed most of my weight on it. Then I slowly pushed my left leg, held tight and straight, out in front of me. With my left hand I reached out before myself like an archer lining up a shot and made a tight fist save for my index and middle fingers, which I pointed straight up. Lastly I raised my black sword in my right hand, even with my eye line and just to my right, much like a scorpion's stinger. Hence why I called this my scorpion stance.

I held this stance for a few moments before I started. Choosing a random point in the air before me, which I would consider my enemy, I slowly brought my sword forward into a straight thrust at what would be the enemy's stomach. After fully extending the exaggerated movement I pivoted on my right foot and twisted away from the enemy, bringing the sword close to my chest. As I turned I started to bring my left knee up to my chest. I was moving terribly slow right now, but had I been moving at the normal battle pace bringing my knee up would speed up my turn so that when I re-extended my sword arm a moment later it would come slicing at the enemy's neck.

Assuming my enemy blocked my sword with a clever bit of bending I ducked, avoiding a 'blast of fire'. Then using the same momentum I twisted on my left ankle and spun in an attack that would normally sweep an enemies legs from under him. After delivering a quick final blow I rolled straight backwards avoiding the 'blast' from a second enemy. Once I got my feet below me again I gripped my sword with both hands and slowly brought it straight up to the face of my enemy.

This could go on forever; I would do battle with an army. One enemy after another would appear before my mind's eye and I would put my mind to the ultimate test by both fighting my enemy and - as the enemy- fight myself.

"Sokka, are you having an argument with your imaginary friend again?" asked Toph. A quick peek to the river show me that she had concluded her training session with Aang, who was lying flat on the ground both trying to clutch his heaving chest and as many of the blossoming bruises as he could. I smiled a bit; Toph was one tough sugar cookie.

"I'm practicing my combat movements," I replied as I ducked a viciously thrown axe.

"And I'm sure the Fire Nation soldiers would be more then kind enough to slow that far down for you to keep up," teased Katara.

"I told you before, a true swordsman-"

"Swordsperson," corrected my very distracting sister.

"We'll I'm a guy, so in this case this _swordsman_ practices the movements slowly so that when the time comes he can execute them with precision and blinding speed," I explained as two Firebender pike-men ... pike-people attacked me.

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Jade Knight - Richard Caine - Kitty

**Please Review**

-This chapter has been Beta-approved :)-


	2. Cats Eyes

_Disclaimer: I don't own avatar, but one day i will. FIGHT THE POWER!_

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_**NOTE TO VEGETARANS**: in this chapter i poke a little fun at vegetarians from Sokka's POV. He is really into meat and meaty things so it felt appropriate... i mean no offense._

_Curtain Up!_

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**Sokka; Master of the Black Sword**

By: The Jade Knight

Beta and creative consultant: Richard Caine

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**-Tournament Saga- **

**Chapter 2**

**-**

The Story of Sokka

Chapter 2: Cat's Eyes

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I was kneeling on the ground running a sharpening stone over the edge of my blade while Aang was doing his Waterbending with Katara. I had finished my combat training a short time ago and it was just approaching midday. I was getting hungry, we all were.

I ran the stone over the black steel again, sending a small shower of sparks onto the grass. I was deep in thought, only paying just enough attention to my sword so that I could do a proper job in sharpening it. We were getting very low on supplies, I mused. we might have enough food for a further two days. Normally I would just do some hunting, but for some reason the forest had been very empty lately. I hadn't found anything meaty for a while, and even if I did Aang was a vegetarian. I know, weird. How could you not eat meat? It was so tasty.

Well either way the bottom line was that we were nearly out of food, and thinking back I had used the last bit of shampoo this morning. We would need to stop in town today and get some things. Plucking a random blade of grass I gently slid it along the edge of my blade and smiled as it was cleaved in half. The sword was wicked sharp. I re-sheathed the sword and strapped it on, then I made my way over the the saddle still sitting on the ground and began to look for the map we had of this area.

After tossing aside a few things I finally found it under our almost empty bread tin. Picking up the map I noticed that the flint box was also nearly empty, opening it right up I only found one more piece. We would need more flint too, if we wanted to make a fire again. I kind of knew how to make a flame with that two sticks bit, but I never really got the hang of it. I only managed to get a fire going once like that.

Ha, Sokka make fire. Ooga ooga.

With a soft laugh to myself I sat down on the edge of the saddle and started to look over the map. There were quite a few towns within a days travel of our camp, some of them seemed to be fairly large too. But which one? We were deep in the Fire-Nation, I had to plan every step carefully so that we wouldn't get caught and dragged of to some dark prison.

"Whats got you so down?" I nearly jumped from the sound of a voice. Looking to my left I saw Toph sitting in the saddle with me. I was really surprised, and a little ashamed that I had let her sneak up on me. I was supposed to be the warrior, unshakable and unsurprised. And lets face it; Toph isn't the softest walker and for her to be able to sneak up on me it was pretty bad. It brought home to me the same thoughts I'd been having since Katara really learned to Waterbend. I was the weakest and most ambush-able of the group. The weakest link.

"Nothing," I said glancing back to the little pond at the bottom of the falls where Katara and Aang were still doing some weird Waterbending thing. "I was just trying to figure out where to go next, we need supplies, and a meal in a restaurant would be nice."

"Yeah that'd be good, those Hamster-Bunnies you burned the other day were pretty bad."

I laughed at that. I remembered yesterday when I had caught a couple Hamster-Rabbits. Katara and Aang were saying I was a horrible person for eating a little fluffy tailed animal. I was really getting torn apart until Toph walked over -pointedly right between us-, tore off a leg and started to eat. They were quiet for a while after that, but when Aang and Toph were washing the dishes we had another argument about not eating cute things. I was losing until Toph said that if they were stupid enough to be caught they deserved to be eaten. A woman after my own heart.

"They were a little burnt huh? I guess no one likes it when its my turn to do supper." I said with a little grin, looking back at the map. A moment later my thoughts were broken again.

"Have you ever though about how strange letters and writing are?"

"What?" I asked not seeing what she was getting at. Wow, random much? I looked over to her and she was facing straight ahead. It guess it would seem a little odd to some people for her not to look them in the eye when she talked. But I had long since gotten used to it and had learned that just because she wasn't looking at you didn't mean she wasn't watching.

Then she turned to me and those misty eyes were once again on me "Well, think about it. You look at a piece of paper with some scribbles and lines on it and the words and meanings the writer had in his head appear in yours. Even if its like a hundred years later you still think exactly the same things. Seems a little like witchcraft to me."

Witchcraft? Cool.

"I had never thought of it like that." I admitted.

"Really, its down right creepy from my perspective," Toph continued. "From what I've heard you don't even see words after a while. You call them words, but when you are shown them you don't think 'this group of signs mean water' or something. You just think 'water', right?"

I looked down at the map, specifically to the labels listing the names of the towns and rivers. When I looked at them did I see words, or did I see sounds? After a few minutes of thought I started to see what she meant. "It _is_ kind of weird, huh?"

I looked at Toph closely and thought I could just barely see the faintest of blushes on her cheeks; weird. What was she getting at? After a moment I just chalked it up to making conversation while we waited for Katara and Aang to finish up their training session. Then I decided on a likely looking town and told Toph about it. We talked about what size of a place it was and what kind of restaurants it might have. We were getting a little tired of fish since they were the fall back plan when I couldn't hunt anything down. I wanted something beefy and Toph said her favorite food was chicken.

I made a mental note of that for later.

We passed some more time like that, just talking about odd little things. I found out a few things she liked but she seemed to be asking most of the questions. So I answered perfectly honest and tried to be polite by asking her about herself. I was actually doing pretty good. I hadn't made an ass of myself yet. Hazaa! Looking down at her arm I saw that she still had that little bit of meteor rock I had given her bent into the shape of a bracelet she wore on her upper arm. I was happy she seemed to like it. Finally it was time to get moving again and Aang came over to put Appa's saddle back on. It took us a while to get the fuzzy guy out of the water, apparently he like it. I helped as best as I could by loading the last of the gear into the saddle.

Looking over to the riverbank I saw that Katara and Toph were taking quietly together again. Toph looked a little put out. That got me a little concerned. She was Toph, she inspired fear and the feeling of being little in others, she didn't succumb to it. But as I watched Katara talked to her, my sister even did the whole arm over the shoulder thing as they walked back toward us. I was a little worried at first but whatever Katara had said seemed to have worked, because by the time Toph was halfway back over to us she looked back to her 'take no crap' self. Strangely just before they fell silent I could have sworn I had heard Katara say something like ' ...all guys are idiots, it just takes a while to get through their skulls'. very odd.

What the hell was that supposed to mean?

But meh, like I said; girls are bloody confusing. Just accept that and life gets easier.

-

We had found a nice large cave for Appa and Momo to hide in while we went into the town. We were going to be staying there for a few days. Aang could use the training time and we were a little ahead of schedule and the cave we had found looked pretty inviting... damn that's sad.

_'Mister Sokka, how do you know when you have been on the road for too long?'_

_'That's easy Mister Sokka, you look at a dry cave like its the Royal Hotel.'_

_'That is just plain sad Mister Sokka.'_

_'I agree Mister Sokka, we should write an angry letter.'_

I laughed a bit, sign one of insanity is to argue with yourself.

_'I though sign one was talking to yourself. Aren't you a little past that?'_

Butt out Mister Sokka, who asked you?

As we walked in relative silence, the sounds of the town slowly began to built. I could hear the stomping of thousands of feet as the citizens went about their daily business. Below that I could hear the calls and announcements of stand owners and bouncers as they tried to get people to buy from them, I guessed we would enter on the bazaar side of the town. It was supposed to be a good sized town, ten thousand or so people.

Ten thousand chances to be caught.

I beat down the prickling fear into a steady cautiousness. I would only become more of a Firebender magnet if I was paranoid. Cautious but not freaking out, that was the goal. We turned the final bend in the road and the town came into full view.

It was a bustling little town, it had the potential to become a city in the next few decades if it continued to prosper. Aang seemed happy at getting to see some new things, and Katara was hard pressed not to look to excited herself. Probably wanted to go and but some expensive and too revealing bit of clothes that we have no room for. At least Toph didn't seem to have the hyper-addicted-shopper syndrome that some girls seemed to have. I frowned, was that because she thought shopping was a waste of time or because she couldn't see the cloth and thought it was a useless endeavor? With a mental shrug I pushed those thoughts aside as we walked beneath the archway.

The archway was a huge swooping arch that the path passed beneath before entering the small town of Homarnu. The town didn't have a wall around it; it didn't really need a wall as a defense thanks to the dense forests that hugged the outer ring of buildings. I took a deep breath and my mouth watered at as I was assaulted by the smells of delicious food. I could smell veal cutlets coming from the closest vendor, a little further along the smells of soups and beef roasts wafted out of a warmly decorated eatery. My eyes went wide as I tried to take in every sign that advertised meaty goodness, and it felt like every window let me glimpse steaming dishes piled high with the best food I had ever seen.

Looking to my sides I saw that my companions were equally as entranced by the food, so I thought a rhetorical question was in order. "So, are we going to shop for the afternoon and then come here for food or-?"

"Food now,"yelled Toph before I could finish talking, then she grabbed my arm and pretty much dragged me into the eatery I had spotted moments before. She must have been using some kind of Earthbending to help her along because my arm felt like it was being pulled from the socket. But you never know, she was pretty strong. In the end I found that I really didn't care as she pulled me into the low lighting and over to a table, Katara and Aang in tow.

Toph guided me over to a corner booth and dropped onto one of the padded benches, scooting over so that someone else could sit beside her, seeing as the booth only had room for four. Then I hesitated; I wanted to sit next to her. But should I, wouldn't it be better for the girls to sit together? My momentary confusion was brought to a quick close as Katara grabbed Aang by the back of his shirt just as it looked like he was going to sit beside Toph and pulled him over to the other bench and next to her. With a feeling of accomplishment, even though it was Katara's actions that made the decision, I took my small victory and sat next to Toph.

I took a quick look around the eatery and found it to have a very comfortable atmosphere. There were maybe fifteen tables in the place plus the oak bar along one wall. It was just after the lunch rush so aside from us there were only three people, a young couple eating pasta in the opposite corner of the room and a middle aged man at the bar with a line of shot glasses in front of him. On the table right in front of me a menu in a navy blue cover caught my attention. I eagerly grabbed it and opened it up and started to scan over the pages. Mmm they had beef. I like beef, and pork, chicken wasn't too bad either. Ooh and they had pasta ... with meat sauce. Did I mention I liked meat?

"So what do they got?" Said Toph. I looked over to her and saw her sitting straight backed and staring forward, her hands folded over the menu. Oh yeah, duh she couldn't read ... so what was I going to do? When we ate somewhere like this it was normally Katara that helped Toph out. Looking over at my sister for help I found her hunched over the menu and pointing something out to Aang. Brilliant. What now? Turning my gaze back down to the menu I thought quickly. I guess I could read the list of things to her, but it was an awful long list, it would take forever to read the whole thing. Then I noticed the headings above each type of dish and relaxed a bit.

"Alright Toph, they have soups, salads, burgers, pasta, roasts, buffalo wings, ribs and a bunch of fruit side-dishes."

"What are the buffalo wings made from?"

"Uhhh," I said reading the small description below the picture. "Moose-Turkeys." I answered pulling a face, Moose-Turkeys were dry and were really tough. And judging from the 'echh' sound Toph made she didn't like them either.

"What do they have under roasts?"

"They got, um, Pineapple Pork, the Hungry-Man Beef, Vegitarian-"

"How the hell do you get a vegetarian roast?" Toph inserted with a grimace.

"Eww, its pure tofu." I mumbled, then I noticed Aang glaring at me a bit and I didn't voice my opinions on tofu and how it can't be natural.

"Definitely gross, molded vomit." Cracked Toph causing me to chuckle behind my quickly raised menu. After a moment I peeked over the top and was a little relived that Aang had gone back to his own menu.

"What's the Hungry-Man Beef?" Toph said getting my attention again.

"A platter apparently, the description says it comes with three slices of tender beef shoulder roast, our choice of potatoes, a veggie side dish and gravy." My stomach growled loudly voicing its choice. "and apparently I'm getting one of these." I said patting my stomach. This brought a little laugh from Toph.

"Yeah it does sound good, what's the potato choices?"

"Mashed, scalped, boiled and deep fried."

"Veggies?"

"Corn, green peas, or yellow beans."

"Deep fried potatoes as in French fries?"

"Thats whats in the picture."

"Sokka?" Katara said getting my attention off of the tasty looking pictures. "Whats our money situation?" Oh yeah, money. I quickly did some calculations in my head, allowing for over priced vendors and haggling.

"We should try to keep the bill here under nine silver."

"How much is the Hungry-Man thing?" Toph said

"A silver twenty five, with that and a drink ... maybe a desert its fine." suddenly a rumbling roar emanated from the stomach of the small girl and I laughed.

"Apparently I'm getting one of the Hungry-Man roasts too." Toph said without a second thought, oblivious to or ignoring the fact that Aang had jumped at the sound of her stomach growling. Ha, the mighty avatar toppled by a hungry girl.

A short time later a graying waiter came over dressed in black and white dress clothes to take our orders. In the end Toph had the Hungry-Man with fries and peas, I got the same thing but with mashed potatoes and corn. Katara got a pasta dish with light tomato sauce and Aang ordered a mandarin salad with a tossed fruit side-dish.

As we waited for the food to arrive we talked about what we needed to get, in the end I had to get out a pencil and wrote down a shopping list on a napkin. I was just jotting down a note to check on flint what Katara brought up a question I had been struggling with for a while now.

"How much money do we have left?"

"Enough." I said as I continued to write.

"How much is enough?" Aang asked, a little weary.

I sighed. I wasn't going to be able to skirt around this for much longer. "We will have enough for get the stuff we need right now, but were going to be scraping the bottom of the money bag by sundown."

"Oh." was all the answer I got. I had hopped to save the others the worry of figuring out where the next bit of money was going to come from; but now they knew anyway.

"That's why I thought we should settle down here for a few days. Its a fairly big city, I'm sure that we can get some money somehow." This seemed to satisfy the others, but I knew that getting money from a town you just entered was a difficult undertaking. But I had confidence that an opportunity would present itself. The Fates always leave a loop hole in the walls of life and all that jazz. I figure it was to make up for all the small yellow birds who tried to commit ritual suicide using my face. I consider myself lucky that way.

"Your meals," The elderly waiter said stiffly as he appeared by our table holding five plates balanced across his forearms and a drink tray in his left hand. For a second I was a little amazed that he seemed to be able to balance all of those plates and still look like his mind was elsewhere.

"Mandarin salad?" he asked in a bored tone, and after hearing Aang's reply placed the plate in his right hand in from of the hungry avatar who just managed to contain himself as he politely waited until the rest of the plates were on the table before attacking his salad. Looking over I noticed that the mandarin salad seemed to have several mandarin oranges strewn throughout the greenery.

Oranges on a salad; vegetarians are _weird._

"Hungry-Man with corn?"

"Mine." I said taking my hands off of the table and placing them in my lap so that he could have room on the table to put the plate down.

"Hungry-Man with peas?" And so it went like this over the space of about a minute until we all had our sweet smelling plates in front of us. Well, salads don't really smell, but that didn't stop Aang from drooling over it. Now with only the drink try in front of him the waiter started to pass out the drinks, cranberry-apple juice for me (its my favorite juice, bite me), orange for Toph, some green gunk for Aang and water for Katara. Then the waiter placed the cutlery, tightly wrapped in another red napkin, beside each plate. His job done for now the waiter nodded his head slightly and returned to the kitchens.

I glanced over at Toph and saw her go through her usual before meal ritual. I could always see so I have no idea what its like to eat a meal you couldn't see what was in front of you. Sure she had felt exactly where the waiter had placed the glass and plate, but she had no idea the dimensions of the items and where the food on it was. I remembered the first time she had done this I had asked her what she was doing, and she had been kind enough to explain it.

Firstly she reached her right hand out and ran a finger all the way around the edge of the oval plate memorizing the shape of it so that she didn't accidentally push the food off of the plate. Then she lifted her hand up and moved it slowly over the plate making sure to keep it a few inches above the surface. She had said it let her know where the different things were. For example, when she felt a damp heat rising from a certain part of the plate she knew it was the peas because of fact that they would have been cooked in a lot of water, thus the damp heat. When she moved her hand over the roast the heat was more intense and dryer, because of being cooked in an oven.

After mapping out her plate she would grab her glass and quickly memories its weight and dimensions and then place it back down in the exact same spot it had been before. Now that she knew where her meal was she popped the little black band of paper that bound the napkin around the cutlery and dug into her roast with much relish. With a small smile I started to eat, looking up I saw that Aang had started to eat his orange salad as soon as Katara had gotten her pasta. Apparently I was the only one that waited for Toph.

Damn it, Katara may have had her head down as she spun her fork in the streaming pasta but I could still see that she had that blasted 'I know something' smile on. That was really starting to get annoying.

-

Mmm pie, the next best thing to meat. The meat had been really good, and then we had ordered some deserts. Apple pie for me, blueberry for Aang, a toasted cinnamon bun for Toph and something called velvet cake for Katara, which turned out to be this little piece of red cake that really looked like it was made of velvet. We finished our deserts as well and were talking about nothing in particular, when the bill came; seven silver and eighty copper. Not bad.

When I was up at the cash register paying I heard Katara laugh from behind me, turning around I saw my sister laughing as Aang picked a crumb of the velvet cake off of her lip and popped it in his mouth as he wiggled his eyebrows at her. I narrowed my eyes dangerously at him so that when he looked at me a second later his face immediately got a guilty expression. Katara, following Aang's gaze frowned at me but I just put on an innocent face and shrugged before I turned back to face the same graying waiter as he rang up the bill.

I paid and we all went out back into the sunlight, I guess we had been in the dimly lit eatery for too long because I all but hissed at the sun. But once the blindness from the sun had faded I saw the little favor from the fates. It was posted on the back of a public announcement so we hadn't even noticed it on the way in.

"Wow, look at that!" I nearly shouted pointing at the board excitedly. It was something that only I could do that could solve our money problems for many months.

"Bikini waxes?" Katara as she exploded in laughter, soon followed by the other two.

"No, above it." I said as I felt my face burning.

Aang looked at the poster and looked skeptical. "What are we looking at here?"

"The ninth Homarnu Soudatsu starts tomorrow!"

"Whats a Soudatsu?" Toph said with a vaguely curious expression on her face.

"A So-Dat-Su," I said stressing the pronunciation, "Is a combat tournament where the primary fighting style is weapon orientated, its a fight of blades."

"Okay." Said Katara evenly "And this is relevant because..."

"First prize is five hundred gold pieces!"

"Oh no!" shouted Katara raising an accusing finger at me. "Your thinking about entering aren't you!"

"Uh... yeah. We need the money and this is probably the fastest way." I thought it was a brilliant idea, but apparently my sister didn't agree.

"Are you insane? You could be hurt, or killed! There are going to be battle hardened veterans there, you will get torn apart. You won't stand a chance!"

"Yes I will, I am a great swordsmen."

"Piando said you_ could_ be a great swordsmen _someday, _or did you forget that he threw that little graduating match you had with him. You are not ready for something like this, it's to far above you!"

"I don't know Katara," Said Toph thoughtfully. "He might stand a pretty good chance, after all I was both the youngest and smallest Earthbender to ever win the Earth-Rumble. Size is no clear indication of power."

"Of course you would side with him." Katara snapped, I had only begun to toy with what she said when she continued. "But he's not an Earthbender, he would get slaughtered. He can't use that sword yet, and when he finally realizes that in the heat of a fight what is he going to do then huh? Throw his boomerang at them? We'll be stitching him together after five minutes."

"Come on Katara, that isn't fair." Toph said looking a little annoyed.

"It's okay Toph, she's probably right." I mumbled flatly, feeling pretty low. She was right, I had only first picked up a sword a few months ago. There was no way I could beat guys that had been training for years.

"I'm sorry Sokka, it was a great idea but I just don't want you to get in over your head." Katara said dropping her confrontational tone for a motherly one. "You're already the backbone of our group, you do enough. Let us worry about the money for once okay?"

"Alright." I said, defeated. After that we made our way into the bazaar looking for the things we needed. Katara lead with Aang right by her side with me dragging my feet next to Toph.

-

"Sokka, give me some money and you and Aang can get the rest of the stuff."

"What?" I said. I hadn't really been listening, I had been deep in though thinking about what Katara had said. Was I to inexperienced to fight in the Soudatsu? Would I only be endangering myself? I needed a second opinion on this. But so far the vote was a two-two split. Toph seemed to be on my side of the argument, she believed in my power. But both Aang and Katara thought I was getting to far ahead of myself. Bloody hell I needed an independent party for the tie breaker.

"Sokka!" Katara called again.

"What?" I drawled, annoyed now.

"I said to give me a bit of money so Toph and I can go get a few things while you and Aang get the rest."

"Why do we have to split up?" I really didn't get the point of splitting up. We still had a few hours before sunset, there was plenty of time to get everything as a group.

"Sokka, we're low on items." She said as if it cleared everything up.

"Huh." I said dumbly. "We still need a few things, but I still don't get why you want to split up to get them." Katara huffed frustrated and Toph pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Sokka, if I have to repeat myself after this time I am going to be descriptive and accurate, got it? We need _items_."

What the hell was that supposed to mean _items_. That could mean anything from hair-ties to tank. She needed to narrow down the search a little if she wanted me to see what the hell she was talking about.

Wait.

Items? I almost _felt_ some masculine defense line in my head snap.

_ITEMS!_

Katara opened her mouth to give the very 'descriptive and accurate explanation' she promised and I almost screamed _"I get it!" _she closed her mouth with a 'finally' expression on her face. I look to my left and saw that Aang was still lost. Well, all the better for him I guess. So deciding to leave Aang in his blissful ignorance I dug a handful of coppers out of the money pouch on my hip and handed them over to Katara so she and Toph could go buy their -I shivered-_ items_ without us male-folk.

With a quick goodbye the girls walked off in the other direction and i just stood there for a second trying to recollect myself. "Sokka are you okay?"

I looked over at Aang and tried to recollect my shattered mind. I needed to do something manly, where was a criminal to punch or an arm wresting competition when you needed one? There should be a 'how do deal when your sister and the girl you like start talking about _items_' help group or something.

"Yeah I'm good. We still need some bath things, come on." Then I silently led him away looking for a shop that would sell those kinds of things. A bit later (don't ask me when, I had just managed to block out the last few minutes of my memory) we came across a little shop that seemed to have skin creams and shampoos and what-not. Snapping back to reality I pointed it out to Aang and we started to make our way over to it when a old creaking voice spoke up.

"Hello young warrior. My, it has been many winters since I felt an aura like yours." Looking around I noticed a bent over old lady sitting on a folding chair in front of a small black tent. She had long silver hair that was so thin it blew wildly in the fair breeze. Her face was one that had seen many suns and many years, deep wrinkles crossed her pale face, but her smile was one that I had seen many times on Gran-Grans face.

"What did you mean by saying that I had a strange aura?" I replied frowning.

Her smile widened and closed here eyes. "Very few men in the world find their destined path, the path to greatness and legend. The more powerful the aura the more likely they will see their true path, and the last time I felt an aura as strong as yours was the time I met Roku."

"Avatar Roku?" I said, my voice dripping in doubt. "He died a hundred and twelve years ago, in order to have met him you would have to be ancient."

She laughed a cheerful cackle that reminded me of making cookies with my mother. "Hasn't anyone ever told you that you should never ask a lady her age? Well since I don't think you meant to be rude I will admit that I met Avatar Roku when I was seven years old. Yes, that will make me a hundred and nineteen in the spring."

"Oh." Was all that I could manage to respond with. "So what were you saying about auras"

"If you would like to step into my tent, I will tell you what you want to know."

I knew it. "Ma'am, I don't mean to be mean or anything, but I don't have the money to pay for a fortune telling." I turned back to Aang and the shop and started to walk away from her.

"Right now your are plagued by many questions, some are questions of the heart, and some are of the mind. There are many answers before you, but you must recognize them for what they are before it is too late."

I wasn't sure if I believed her, but that last bit worried me. "What do you mean by 'too late'?"

"If you would join me in the tent I would be happy to give you a reading." I opened my mouth to tell her I didn't have the money to pay her "I said that I would read you aura, I never said anything about selling the knowledge did I?"

She smiled kindly at me once more before disappearing into her tent. I fought with myself for a moment. What if she was telling the truth? The last time I had met a fortune teller she had turned out to be a fake, but I felt something different form this woman. Could she be the real deal?

Ah, what the hell.

"Aang go into the shop and look around for a bit, I'll be right back." I hurried forward and opened the flap of heavy black fabric. Inside I found the old woman sitting at a small round table covered in a black table cloth. In the center of the table a half dozen white candles burned brightly filling the entire space with flickering golden light. Across from the old woman a ebony wooden chair sat facing the table. Without a word I pulled out the chair and sat down across from her.

"I see your curiosity has overcome your fears."

"Yeah." I said still a little wary of her. "You said that you could read my aura. What did you mean by that?"

For several long moments the old woman looked into the flames between us. I could see the flames reflecting in her wise eyes, and I though I could see something else there for a second. Something kind; but not quite human.

"In times of great crisis and peril, a hero rises to bring balance to the world. Sometimes a lone and anonymous hero is needed, a single man to over through a corrupt organization. Other times more powerful heroes are needed, and sometimes there is a call for the most powerful of us to rise. For the past hundred thousand years it has been the Avatar that has answered the highest of calls, it has been him alone that has fought back the creeping darkness and restored the balance. But he was gone for too long, the darkness has gone too far. It has dug its heals into the earth and if the Avatar tries to confront the darkness alone he will break upon it, and the Avatar will vanish from the face of the earth forever."

"But there is hope. A new hero is about to be presented an ancient weapon that has vanished from the mind of history. Before the Avatar, before the elements bent to the wills and hands of mortals the was a symbiosis, the time is once again upon us for the ancient ways to return. Soon you will be standing at a cross roads. One path, the brightest and easiest path will lead to the absolute destruction of the Avatar, and the fall of mankind. If this path is followed the race of men will vanish from the realm of the living within a single century. All hope will be lost and the world will become a lifeless void floating though the endless heavens."

"The second path is much harder. The hero must walk upon a path thick with the blood of allies and lovers. The enemies come screaming in from every side in a never ending flood, trying to push the hero back into the cold embrace of death. Many times will the hero bleed and many times will the blood of enemies and allies alike stain his hands. There will be harsh decisions ahead of him, decisions that may strip him of his humanity and leave him lying naked in a dark pit of despair and hatred. But at the end of it all, if he listens to his heart the peace of family and love await him."

"The two paths are connected at a hundred points. If the hero takes even a single step down the path to nothingness there is no hope, and everything he touches and loves will turn to ash. But there is a faint light in the distance."

The old woman looked up at me so fast that I jumped. Something was wrong with her eyes, it was like I could see the memories and souls of a thousand people in there. They weren't trapped or in pain. It was like they were trying to reach out to me, to help me. And if I wasn't mistaken the old woman was allowing these ... spirits into her mind, to use her mouth to speak and her eyes to see. "The path to nothingness is through the head, cold logic and blackness lead to the Void. The path to the future is through the heart. Many people the hero trusts and respects will unknowingly try to guide him down the path to the Void, but he must do what is in his heart."

With a roar the tiny flames on the candles exploded and I screamed and nearly fell back out of the chair as a wall of flame came up between us. Inside the fire I could see images: some were people, some were places I had been, but all of them were so out of focus I could barely make them out. The wall of flame gave a shiver and I saw a man standing next to a silvery animal of some sort.

"In the shadow of the black fortress, in the valley of death a warrior hero stands strong, a sword of the blackest onyx on his back and a white wolf at his side. He is alone, his family is either dead, or being held in the black fortress. Agony and pain await his family and the one whole holds his heart, and unless he attacks by sundown they will all be slaughtered in the night. Rage seethes barely controlled beneath the surface as two choices appear before him."

"He can enter through stealth, moving in the shadows and hiding from the prying eyes of the enemy. But the trek to the dungeons is long, and he arrives too late, the Iron Maiden has succumbed to her injuries. In the fury that follows the hero's soul turns black and he attacks everything in a berserker rage. In a matter of moments the hero is killed and along with him dies the future."

"The second choice for the hero is to throw himself down the throat of the beast, fight his way past the fangs of the monster and free the one's he cares for. After the Iron Maiden is free the hero must plunge into the belly of the beast and face the dragon. Broken will be his body but whole will be his heart. Defeat the dragon he may, but he never sees the sun rise on the next day. The hero fights with the courage of a hundred men, and he can see the doors to freedom. But there is an army before him, with thoughts of the Iron Maiden in his head he charges into them with a thunderous battle cry. For several moments it almost seems like he might win, his enemies fall and freedom is only steps away. Then countless enormous columns of flame and smoke slam into him from every side. His cloths and amour begin to melt under the intense heat as he falls to the ground dying."

I had been so entranced by what the old woman had been saying that when the wall of flames hovering over the small table exploded outward in every direction with the sound of a bolt of lightning I all but threw myself backwards, trying to escape the orange and red hands reaching for me. A fraction of a second later I felt the air forced out of my lungs as I fell onto the unforgiving ground. Even before I managed to get a breath I was frantically backpedaling as I tried to run from the fire I knew was just in front of me.

"Sokka!" Called Aang as he jumped into my field of vision. "Calm down, what's wrong?" He looked terrified as he reached down and pulled me to my feet. I was going to scream at him to run, or to just grab him and drag him along. He was like the only family I had aside from Gran-Gran and Katara, so of course my next thought was to throw him down onto the ground and cover his body with my own. Just as I grabbed the front of his shirt to save him I realized that we hadn't been consumed by the flames yet, and they had only been bare inches from my face when I had first reacted.

"Are you alright? Sokka please answer me! Should I go get Katara?"

"Katara? But ... the fire, and the old woman!"

"What fire? There's nothing here."

"What?" I gasped looking toward the place the old woman's had sat only seconds before. But now instead of a small tent engulfed in a raging inferno, I saw ... a dirty alley empty save for a few over flowing garbage cans. "Where did the tent go, and the old woman."

Aang looked at me with a very worried expression on his face. "There was no tent or woman, we were walking and then you looked toward that alley and just kind of spaced out. I tried talking to you but you didn't seem to hear me, and then you just started freaking out."

I stared open mouthed at Aang. What the hell was going on? I could remember every word the old woman had said, I remembered the smell of the tent and the feel of the hard wood chair, I could even remember the heat of the flames. But had it all just been in my head? This didn't make any sense? Where the hell did all of that come from?

Looking back at the little alley that the tent had sat only moments ago I was trying to figure out what had just happened when a rattle of metal made me tense, my hand on the hilt of my sword. With a drawn out 'meow' an old gray cat lazily wandered out of the alley and of course Aang ran forward to pet the little guy. But what stuck me cold was the cat's eyes. The cat's very wise and human looking eyes, the same eyes the old woman had had.

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**The Jaden Knight**

**Richard Caine**

**_PLEASE READ & REVIEW_**


	3. Spectral Combat

_Disclaimer: I don't own avatar... i say a few of use authors storm the head offices and change that? What do you say?_

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_**Curtain up!**_

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**Sokka; Master of the Black Sword**

By: The Jade Knight

Beta and creative consultant: Richard Caine

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**-Tournament Saga- **

**Chapter 3**

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The Story of Sokka

Chapter 3: Spectral Combat

**-**

The gentle singing of birds fell on my ears moments before I felt the heat of the rising sun upon my face. I was meditating like I did every morning, but this morning was different. I usually got up _with_ the sun but today I had woken up early, the sky had still been black. It had taken me several moments to figure out where I was. As soon as I had my feet under me I quickly and silently moved around our encampment. My ragged breathing echoed off of the stony walls as I checked on everyone. I opened the flap of my sister's tent and found her sleeping soundly, Aang was on top of Appa, and after I had hovered over Toph just long enough to tell that she was breathing I started to calm down.

I had had a terrible nightmare. It was kind of like the, prophecy-thing the old woman had told me, at least the worst parts. I watched the others all dragged deep into a black castle as I was chained to a immense boulder atop a cliff overlooking the ocean. For what seemed like hours I was forced to listen to their screams of agony as they were brought inch by inch to the brink of death. Then as the last gurgling scream died a great dragon appeared, smoke billowing from its nostrils, a scrap of green cloth that had once been a part of Toph's Blind Bandit costume in its bloodied teeth. For I moment I thought of fighting it, but everything and everyone I cared for was dead. I just gave up. Seeing my defeated state the dragon bellowed in glee before ripped into me and tossing my remains into the ocean.

Needless to say it was all I could do not to wake up screaming and clinging to anything within reach.

Of course after that I could never get back to sleep, so I quietly packed up my tent and got dressed before sitting down for a peaceful mediation, hoping that I could find some mental calm. After a while I found it, and my thoughts started to drift to the Soudatsu. By the time the sun came up I had reached a decision.

After I brought myself out of the meditation, I strapped on my sword and made my way over to where we had piled the supplies we had bought yesterday. We were tired and didn't really feel like putting everything away, so it was a real mess and in my searching I fond several miscellaneous_ items_ that made me block out several more minutes of my memory. Damn, anymore of this and I'll have more blank space in my head then memories. With a little sigh of satisfaction at ending the perilous search I pulled out a small pad of paper and a pen. I scribbled a small circle in the corner of the page to get the ink flowing, then I started to write. I didn't want them to worry, or be suspicious. After I was done I read it over to make sure it sounded right

_Hey guys_

_I woke up early and decided to go explore the city for a bit. I won't be back for a little while but don't worry, I'll be back before lunch. I left the money bag inside my sleeping bag if you remember anything important we forgot yesterday. Try to have some fun. _

_-Sokka _

Yeah, that sounded nice, light and to the point. Pinning it to the flap of Katara's tent, where I knew they would find it I wandered back over to the place I had left my rolled up sleeping back and folded tent. We had a short discussion last night about if we should set up tents or not. We were indoors, so-to-speak so there was no danger of rain. But the ceilings of caves sometimes became all drippy during storms, and it had looked a little cloudy last night. So to play it safe we had set up the tents.

Reaching down I picked up the modest money bag and turned the little leather pouch over in my hand. Counting out the coins I ran a few more calculations in my head. We had seven silver and forty two copper pieces left. At a hundred copper to a silver and forty silver to a gold we we standing on shaky ground. I grabbed three of the silver coins and half of the coppers and dropped them into the little bag that Piando-sensei had given me. I heard the coins clinking on the lotus tile in there and felt guilty for taking the money without the others knowing. I knew I would win the tournament and I knew I would be able to get us sitting comfortably for many months to come with the winnings, but I still felt like scum.

Jamming the remaining money back into the money pouch I rolled it back into my sleeping back, dropping it on the floor I took one last look around the cave before turned into the rising sun peeking into the cave and made my way back to the town.

In a few days I would either be a champion or cold hearted thief.

-

By the time I had passed under the archway again the town was starting to wake up. The air was filled with the smell of the first pieces of meat hitting the pans mixed with the scent of the morning drew. Only about half of the vendors were wheeling out their carts and the streets were still fairly devoid of people.

Excellent. When buying a disguise it was best to do so when the fewest people saw you doing it.

I wandered around for about an hour, checking around for a good place to buy something long and concealing to wear. Everything I found was either too expensive or didn't come in a size that I didn't have to swim in. I'm a speed fighter, a warrior of the water tribe, I learned to flow with the battle. So I need to wear something that flows with me, not against. Finally I spotted a small cart with a rack of worn robes and other types of clothing. Looking around I saw that no one was paying any exceptional attention to me so I breezed over and started to look through the items.

"Looking for anything specific?"

I looked over to where the voice had come from and found myself looking into the kind eyes of a middle aged man. I smiled as I took him in. He was a kindly looking fellow with dark hair and caring blue eyes. His face was a little rough and he was dressed in clean but slightly tattered clothes. He reached out a single callused hand and I exchanged a tight shake with him.

"You run this cart?" I asked striking up a conversation.

"Yep, my names Yoten. Anything I can help you with?" He looked like a good honest guy and I was having no luck so far, meh maybe he can help, as long as I don't tell him to much.

"Hey Yoten, my name's Brenton." I lied, Brenton wasn't a bad name. I guess I could have gone with Piando-sensei's suggestion of Lee, but it just annoyed me for some reason. "I'm looking for something loose but not billowy on the cheap side of the street."

Yoten looked me over for a second, taking in my cloths and sword; and then he smiled wider. "Another last minute entrant for the Soudatsu huh?" I almost felt my stomach hit my shoes. How could he have guessed that easily? I wasn't the greatest liar in the world but I had barely said ten words. How could he have possible guessed by now? Seeing the slightly horrifies expression on my face Yoten chuckled and placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder. "Don't worry son. I had nine guys yesterday alone looking for a little fame and glory in the tournament but not wanting their friends or family recognizing them. I can keep a secret, you're safe."

I breathed a little sigh of relief but didn't drop my guard all the way.

"Looking at you," he continued giving me a calculating look, "I'd say the sister or mother said no, and the girl said yes? Am I right?"

I cracked my own smile. "That obvious?"

"Well judging from how you walked over here it was definitely a family member who told you no, and its usually the women who don't like combat tournaments. But you're holding yourself confidently and taking a chance by admitting it to me. So I'd say the girl you like had confidence in you, but you're not together quite yet and you want to impress her by at least being in the top ten."

"You can tell all that?"

"Well you got the cocky confidence of a man smitten."

"Smitten?" I asked a little confused.

"You got it bad for a pretty pair of eyes." He said definitely and I couldn't help but grin a little wider. But then I remembered my problems with Suki, and the realness of my feelings for Toph. I guess something must have shown on my face.

"Got troubles of the heart?" He asked seeming to understand. "Don't worry son, they all work themselves out in the end. All you can do is help fate along and hold on when it decides its time for you to take a dive. But don't worry, that old saying 'what goes up must come down' works the other way too."

I actually felt a lot better now, I told him so and after a few more minutes of discussing past Soudatsu's we started to flick through his small assortment of garments. He had a small cart that consisted of a single long bar suspended between two posts and a small counter on the other side I hadn't looked at yet. On the bar a few dozen assorted shirts and robes hung on wire hangers. We looked for a bit, talking about life and love. Until my finger nail caught on a smoke gray robe that I had passed over. I pulled it out a bit to get my fingernail off of the loose thread and Yoten came over.

"Find something?" He asked looking at the robe.

"No, my nails are just a little long and it-" I stopped and looked at the robe, then I pulled it completely out of the rack and looked it over. Unseen behind me Yoten was smiling politely and waiting as I examined the accidental find. The whole robe was a consistent smoke gray that almost looked spectral, at first glance it looked like a one piece, but after a second looked it appeared that the shirt and pants were separated and only held together with the belt.

"Want to see if it fits?"

I nodded before placing the Robe on the cart gently and quickly whipping off my shoulder-warmer and sword. Then I took the pants of the robe and started to pull them up over my shorts. The fabric was like well worn hard-cloth pants, extremely comfortable. And the strange thing was it almost seemed to anticipated my movements and cooperated fully. I found myself really hoping this would fit properly, it seemed to have been left here just for me. With my hands shaking with excitement Yoten had to help me get the shirt on. Its arms stopped right at my wrists and would not inhibit my sword movements at all.

Looking down I ran two fingers along the edge of the seams and found them nearly flawless, this was a quality piece of work. I tightened the belt and felt a hood on the back. Reaching over I pulled the hood over my head and made a few experimental movements. The hood would really help my disguise.

"It's perfect!" I exclaimed. Turning I found the man grinning happily at me.

"I felt greatness when I made that robe, I hope it finds it with you." I was shocked silent for a second.

"You made this?"

"Yes, I made all of them." He said proudly waving his hands over the dozen or so garments at his cart. "My mother was a brilliant seamstress back in the little village where I grew up, I used to spend hours watching her sew. I guess after my father left for the war she was all I had left. But why am I boring you with my life story? Well, it looks like it fits you perfectly."

"Yeah," I thought about what he said about the war. Had be lost his father to the war like I had my mother? I never thought about the Fire Nation soldiers being just like us. But I guess it would be so, a few men leading and the rest following. Shaking my head to loosen the disturbing thoughts. I got back to reality and though about what else I would need "Now I need to get a mask or something, can you recommend anywhere?"

"Well there are a few honest vendors a little further in, but if you don't want to walk all that way I could let you browse my little collection." I liked this guy, he had helped me along a lot so far so I decided to see what he had. With a curt nod he led me around the other side of the cart to the small counter he had set up there.

"My daughter is quite the little artist and she likes to help out, so she made me a few clay masks to sell. I know they don't allow metal masks in the Soudatsu and a clay one might be a little to brittle, but you're welcome to look over them."

I looked down at the counter, and arranged there were four very well made masks and space for a few more. "I usually sell a few every tournament. Last year one fighter made it to the end of the preliminaries wearing one of Shoji's masks." He laughed heartily "You can imagine how happy she was that everyone got to see something she made."

I laughed along with him and then looked down at the masks. They were _really_ well crafted. I was blown back by the detail and care that had gone into these pieces. "My god these are amazing, how old is your daughter?"

"She'll be nine next fall." Yoten said in a proud fatherly voice. Nine? _Nine? _My god how in the hell did a nine year old make these masks? They had astounding details. One mask was like a fish-man head and it actually looked a little slimy, I had to touch it to be sure it wasn't really wet. Then one of them drew me completely in.

In relation the the other phenomenally crafted pieces it wasn't significant in anyway. It was in a basic face shape, tapering down to a sharply pointed chin and made of clay so white it almost hurt the eyes. The two horizontal eye slits, rimmed in thick black paint were wide enough to see though, but at such an angle they would make looking in to see my eye color nearly impossible. There was no mouth and the delicate yet sharp nose rose from the center of the mask like a threatening cliff face. It was almost featureless, but elegantly so. I ran my hand along one side of the mask as my eyes followed the wild black tribal tattoo that tore its way along the right side of the mask and vanished off the edge. It was wild, it was powerful, it was scary as hell.

It was perfect.

My finger ran along the back of it, and felt something off. Turning the mask over I looked at the inside. There were three straps converging on a small leather oval that held the mask on the face even in high activity. But what took my attention was the swirling patterns on the inside of the mask. The outside was flawless but the back told the tale of how it was crafted, if one was familiar with the technique used. I had spend many months watching Toph train and I just happened to be familiar with Earth-Bending. I let out a small gasp, and looked up at Yoten in amazement and a little fear.

His daughter had used Earth-Bending to make the masks.

I saw realization slowly dawn on Yoten's face. He knew that I knew. I studied his face for a second and started to pick out the features typical to one of Earth Kingdom decent.

"Mister Brenton, I love my daughter very much." This was a very simple statement but I could feel the meaning behind it. Yoten slowly backed up, putting the cart between him and me, and then he reached for something just out of my line of sight. Glancing back to where my sword was, leaning up against the cart, still in reach But I didn't want to fight this man, he was a kind soul. I could see that he didn't want to hurt me, but he was a war refugee in hostile ground, and he had a daughter here.

I made a quick, possibly stupid decision

"My real name is Sokka and I am Water Tribe. I am in as much danger in the Fire-Nation as you are, I have no intention of turning you in or telling anyone who you are." I said as loud as I dared and hoped no one passing heard me. For several long moments I could see him searching my face, undoubtedly looking for the tell-tale features of Water Tribe people, dark-ish skin, light eyes. Finally I saw him relax, and he raised the hand that had been below the counter a moment before.

He came around and looked me in the eyes, studying me. Apparently he found what he was looking for because a moment later, he clapped me on the shoulder. Taking it as a truce I exhaled the breath I hadn't realized I was holding. For the next twenty minutes or so we talked about how he had gotten here. Apparently he had been in Ba Sing Se when it had fallen to Azula and had just managed to get out. I told him a story much the same, with a narrow escape. When I was done he looked like he suspected more, but decided not to mention anything.

"So, are you and Shoji going to be at the Soudatsu again?"

"Yeah," Yoten said with a sigh. "Were trying to save up enough money to get out of the city and move back east, but tickets to the tournament are pretty cheap and Shoji loves watching it."

"How did she get into Tournaments?"

"Ha, funny thing. She had this hero, a pretty good one too. Tough little powerhouse of an Earth-Bender. My daughter thought the world of that Blind Bandit, did you ever hear of her?"

I think my brain just shorted out.

"You okay?" Yoten asked.

"Yeah I'm fine." I said still a little stunned.

"You sure son? You look a little odd."

"Fine, I just need to get going. So you're definitely going to be at the tournament?" I asked, a goofy, knowing grin on my face. Now I see why Katara is always smiling at me like this; it's fun knowing something no one else does.

"Yes, Shoji wouldn't let me miss it."

"Well I'll be seeing you there. Watch for me." After getting a nod I continued. "Now, I'd like to buy this mask as well, if you can be parted with it." I said gesturing to the white mask.

"Sure," he said slowly trying to figure out what I was grinning about. Boy, is Shoji going to get a surprise. "The robe and mask come to two silver and eighteen copper. Here I'll even throw in a duffel bag for free."

"No, I'll pay for the bag as well-"

"I won't hear of it, just promise you'll get far in the tournament. Shoji loves to see her masks in the Soudatsu." He said pressing a plain black bag into my hands. Seeing there was no arguing with him I put my shoulder-warmer into it before strapping my sword back on and slinging the bag over my shoulder. Since I was planning to go register for the Soudatsu in a moment I also put on the mask. Flipping up the hood I felt pretty mysterious and awesome. Now all I need is a kick-ass name.

"I plan on winning." I said simply through the mask. It even distorted my voice to the point that I could barely recognize it. As I handed over the silver I owed, a few extra coppers thrown in for a tip, I found I kind of liked the stony smell the mask had.

It reminded me of Toph.

I hear someone coming up behind me and I immediately switched back into full Fire-Nation alert. I was just putting the remaining money back into the small pouch, along with my Pia Sho tile that had come out with the silver, when the man behind me gave a little gasp. I turned around slowly trying not to look to guilty or like I knew too much. Keeping a mildly curious expression I turned around and faced him.

He was a powerfully built man, about six foot two with thick brown hair styled into a tight military crew cut and wore a gray shirt branded with the Fire-Nation emblem and plain camouflage pants. His thin, gray, short sleeved shirt hugged the sharp edges of muscles build on hard labor rather then in a gym, and on his hip hung a very heavy looking two-handed sword, a Claymore if I wasn't mistaken. It was obviously a very well made and expensive sword, its hilt was made of leather wrapped ivory and it even had a mirror finish on the guard.

"Hello?" I asked in what I hoped was an innocently curious voice. I suddenly found myself thinking that a dangerous and wild looking mask could have its drawbacks.

"Only the ones with the burning torches can play the mysterious and complicated game of Pia Sho in the deepest darknesses." He said in a calm voice as though it didn't make him sound like he belonged in a sanitarium.

"Uh, okay?" I said doubtfully. "I don't know how to play Pia Sho, this tile is just a keep sake I got from my sensei."

For several long moments the large man started me down. It was actually a little intimidating, him being better then a half foot taller then me and all. "Who was your sensei?"

"Piando-sensei," I said fearlessly. The large man frowned a bit and for a few more moments he seemed to be thinking about something, but then his face cleared of confusion and an inviting and calm face dropped into its place.

"I'm sorry I was so rude, please forgive me, I thought you were someone I knew. Its a little hard to tell who is under that mask." He said lightly thrusting out one scarred hand. "My name is Salazar."

I considered him, he seemed like an okay guy, but that's how psychopaths lure you in. The killer psychos are never the ones that looks crazy. But I had learned to trust my instincts over the last few months, and my instincts told me that this guy could be trusted ... to a point.

"Brenton." I said as I took his hand. The second our hands touched I felt the slight heat in the palm of his hand that I had come to expect from exceptionally powerful Fire-Benders.

"Salazar," said Yoten with a wide smile. "I thought you'd be back for the tournament."

"Never missed one yet, and like I promised last year I'm back to buy one of your daughters fine masks." He then laughed a little and wandered over to the table where Yoten had the remaining three masks laid out. I was just about to walk away when Yoten waved me over.

"Salazar, this young man will be entering the tournament also."

"Are you now?" He asked, sizing me up. He gave a small nod. "He's got a body built for a good mix of speed and power. If he has really been trained by Piando like he claims I might have some strong competition early on."

"Excuse me, but you said you've been in past tournaments?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Well, this will be my first competition of any kind. Could you tell me what I should expect?" behind Salazar's considerable back I caught sight of Yoten telling me silently that I could trust this guy.

"Have you registered yet?" I shook my head. "Well I haven't either, so then sit tight and I'll walk over with you and we can talk on the way."

A short while later in which I found out that Salazar was a Captain in the Fire-Nation Army, we were walking toward the center of town. He asked me a few questions about the war and I told him in vague terms that I didn't think it was all it seemed. Then we laughed a bit over the mask he had bought. It was one of the odder ones, a black mask with the face of a fox pained over it in oranges and reds. He seemed like a nice guy and only nodded when I answered his question about the war, and with that we continued on in silence.

-

I stood in the public bathroom just outside the Soudatsu registration tent. I was nervous as hell but also excited beyond belief. Is this what Toph went through before every fight when she fought in the Earth Rumble? If it was I could see why she loved it so much. My heart pounded, brimming with expectations and fears, adrenaline rushed through my system and made my hands shake.

I will win.

I slowly took off my gray robe. I think I had come up with a pretty wicked name. It seemed to fit the look I had going with the robe and mask. Pulling my shoulder-warmer out of the bag I tied it back on and carefully folded the robe into the bottom of the black bag Yoten had given me. After making sure that the delicate clay mask wasn't at risk of being damaged by nestling it deep in the robe I walked out of the restroom, and almost right into Aang.

"Sokka!" He shouted excitedly. "We've been looking everywhere for you. Katara thought you might be around the tournament grounds today."

"Hello?" I said weakly a little confused. I noticed Katara cutting through the crowd with Toph a moment later.

"Sokka, there you are." My sister shouted with a gleeful expression on her face. "Toph said she felt you walking around over here."

"What are you guy's doing here? I said I would be back by lunch time."

"We know." Katara said when she came to a stop in front of me. "But you looked so put out yesterday we got together after we found your note and decided to cheer you up." Her face was sparkling, Aang looked like he was about to explode with a secret, and Toph smiled.

Oh God, they didn't.

"We know the money is a little low, but you do so much for us. You're always worrying about money and protecting us, we just wanted you to know that even though you aren't training Aang it doesn't mean you don't have a big part in this war. So we talked and decided it was time we planned a little something special for you. A Sokka day!"

I'm doomed.

With a dramatic 'Ta-Da' my sister thrust four small red and brown tickets beneath my nose. Looking down I saw 'Soudatsu' written in fancy script across the tops of the tickets. I thought I lead a pretty good life, what did I do to deserve this. Looking back up I saw that Aang was laughing and bouncing around, Katara hugged me, and over he shoulder I saw a frown crease Toph's forehead.

-

The roar of the crowd was like thunder on a hot summer night. The air was full of power and excitement, and even though we were high up in the stands I could feel the emotion pouring off of everyone. This was fantastic. Katara had been talking about getting closer seats even though I'm pretty sure no one in the arena was sitting. It wasn't a bad idea, the arena had first come first serve seating rules. Basically it meant the meanest and toughest got the prime seats and everyone else went higher up. With Toph I'm sure we could get front row, but Katara and Aang had some 'keep the peace and a low profile' bit going on. It seemed like they were taking over everything that I usually did, making sure we stayed safe and all. It was turning out to be more my day than I thought it'd would.

A few minutes ago, after they dragged the last round's loser off of the floor ... he was knocked out. It was a criminal offense to kill someone in the ring, but even so there had been three deaths in the nine years of the Soudatsu. Anyway, the announcer came out and announced the next fight would be between me and some guy named Kujo. I got an image of a red-eyes killer dog when he said that name, weird. I could have sworn I had heard that name somewhere before.

So I quickly told Katara that I had to go to the restroom. I wasn't worried about Toph's lie-detector bit, I really did have to go. After I relieved myself I made sure my gear was in my bag before wandering over to the fighters only entrance. I was scared and everything seemed to be going so fast. I didn't even remember how I got to the back change rooms.

There I was, standing in a small white room. A mirror on the wall across from me and a small tub of water sitting on a small table set up under it. With a few deep calming breaths I shook my shaking hands out, trying to still them before placing the bag with my costume in it on the floor. Then I took off my sword and leaned it up against the wall. Next my shoulder-warmer came off followed by the cloth wrist guards.

Then I paused.

This was the last time I could run out, no one knew who I was. Even the Fighter's card they gave me just stated that I had full clearance here. It didn't have my picture on it yet, I had been a late entry so I would get a proper card tomorrow. No one knew who I was, I could just go back up into the stands and pretend to be disappointed that one of the fighters disappeared before his fight. I had always wondered what I could do in an all out fight now, we hadn't dealt with any enemies since I started training with my sword. But there would always be a fight. I didn't have to do this.

Except for the money.

We were broke, poor. If we didn't have money we didn't eat. I suddenly got an image of a starved and sickly thin Toph, or Katara, or Aang. No, there was no way in hell I would let that happen. There was no option. This was a way I could ensure that they would always have stability. If the only way I can help Aang win this war is to be the backbone of the group, to sacrifice everything to make sure that they had food and money, to make sure that they can concentrate on the important things. Then so be it.

I will be their strength.

I will be the power behind the curtain.

I will be the protector

I had wasted several precious moments thinking stupid thoughts, so I was running late. I heard an amplified voice telling the next two combatants to be at the arena floor in two minutes. Reaching into the bag I got out my gray robe. I quickly pulled on the pants and tugged on the top. Then I grabbed the belt and clinched it tight around my waist. I stood looking myself over in the mirror for a second, then I took the hair clip out of my hair and let it fall down around my face. Leaning over the small tub of clean water I started to wet down my hair, once I was satisfied I grabbed the small towel beside the tub and toweled it. Not completely mind you, wet and wild hair looked a lot different then my usual wolf-tail, and if my hood was pulled off during the fight the last thing I needed was one of the others recognizing me by my hair-style.

Next I picked up my mask and ran my hands over the surface looking for any cracks or damaged that might had occurred. If it was destroyed or damaged I planned on wrapping a white handkerchief around my face as a back up plan. But it was in perfect condition so I put it in place.

I looked into my reflection as I put up the hood, and felt a twang of fear at what I saw. Even though I knew it was me I was seeing it was still fearsome. I was dressed in my smoky spectral robes, they were of a simple cut but that only seemed to make them more eerie, like I was so general I could easily become anyone's worst nightmare. I had the hood up casting a slight shadow over the blacked out eyes of my mask, even in this bright light all I saw was darkness when I looked into my own eyes. The face that stared back at me was deathly pale and crawling up the right side of my face like a skeletal spider was the savagery of that strange tribal marking.

I actually shuddered a little.

-

I stood facing the two wooden door that I would go through when they called me out to the arena floor. I had been a little behind so they had sent out a clown or something to entertain the crowd. Apparently there was never too many people who entered this thing, so the tournament organizers policy was to make every allowance and delay as long as the fighters put on a good show. Suddenly a huge booming voice echoed through the entire arena.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please, a round of applause for Bonky and his pet Bull-Kitten."

Okay, here it comes.

"And now if you could all please direct your attention to the Battle Pit we will begin the next match." A roar of approval erupted from the unseen audience.

"Please give a welcome to the return of a regular combatant, a man who has won the Soudatsu three of the seven times he has entered. Armed with a Warhammer weighing a hundred and forty pounds he has the Soudatsu's fastest knockout of six seconds ... "

Ow, that had to hurt.

" ... hailing from our own home town, please welcome, _KUJO!_" For a second I wondered if a bomb had gone off the screams and cheers were so loud. And from the sound of splintering wood it sounded like jolly old Kujo came out _through_ his door. Looking at my own door I estimated that it had to be at least three inches of solid oak.

For a minute or so I hear the crowed work themselves up until that booming voice spoke up again. "And his opponent, a first timer to the Soudatsu. Weighing in at a hundred and sixty pounds ... "

I didn't stand on a scale, where did they get that?

" ... hailing from parts unknown. The man without a name, the shadow of the night. Please welcome, _THE GHOST!"_

I gently pushed open the doors and let them drift to a stop. I didn't tell them any of that 'man without a name' crap, but it was good. I have to say they know how to pump up their crowd, but it didn't seem to work for me. I walked out of the darkness of the hall and into the silence of the Battle Pit trying my best to look unnaturally graceful, almost gliding. Of course I almost tripped and fell on my face several times, I just hope no one noticed. My footsteps were the only thing I heard; apparently the people who came here like Kujo, and thus despised me.

Looking casually around at the arena I realized it looked really different form down here. The Battle pit, as it was christened was a circular pit, about a hundred feet across dug into the earth and the arena had been built around it. High in the stands the place had seemed kind of small, but down here the rows of faces glaring down on me seemed to be in the hundred of thousands. Old, young, men, women, all glaring me down.

I don't know why they didn't like me; I like me. Maybe if they gave me a chance...

And there was the smiling face of my opponent, all the way up there in the clouds. Oh my.

He was a mountain of a man. I wasn't small for my age, I stood at a pretty good five foot six, but even so I barely came up to his navel. His bronzed arms were cabled with great hairy muscles that looked like they could bust a tree in half, and speaking of trees; for a moment that's what I thought he was holding. In his hands a pole of well beaten wood measuring an easy five feet long, and on one end a was head that resembled a carved sledge hammer head which looked big enough to turn me into pulp in a single swing.

He was too big to be natural. He grinned down on me from behind a scruffy and unkempt beard, his steely gray eyes gleaming with a gleeful menace in the powerful arena lights. He wore an entire herd's worth of leather armor. Across his chest he had a well worn steel chest plate tied onto the leather vest. His arms were bare but he had tough leather gloves on his hands, stained with some dark liquid. He took a few steps toward me, his steel reinforced boots rattling on the packed dirt floor, until he was standing a mere three feet from me.

And I laughed.

For a moment he faltered as my laughter echoed throughout the silent arena. The people in the stands started to whisper and a subtle buzzing of whispers filled the void after I fell silent. Some of them probably thought I was mad, insane, but they would be wrong. I had been scared, really scared about the fight for a while. What if Katara had been right? I didn't want to be turned into a bloody disassembled human puzzle. But then the best thing in the world happened; I was paired with the biggest and strongest guy I had ever seen.

Water style, Kyoshi Earth style, both of these disciplines were designed to use an opponent's power against them. Kujo would defeat himself. All I had to do was help him along. The fairer the fight, the greater the chance I would have to lose; if I was outclassed in every aspect like now, I was almost guaranteed victory. I enjoyed my wonderful paradox for a second, but I knew I still needed a plan.

The most obvious one would be to stay out of his reach and dart in and out taking little pecks at him. But he would expect that. He had likely been gargantuan his whole life, and that was the most obvious attack pattern. He would expect it, and judging from his choice of a long and vicious Warhammer he had long since worked a way around his speed problems with an age old solution; hit them really hard until they stopped moving. They might dodge the first hit or the second, but eventually they would slip up, and that hammer only needed to hit you once. But it had a fatal flaw, that long hammer. It was the one tactic he thought I would never pull.

Get in close, right in his face and stay there.

A man in dark pants and a white and black stripped shirt walked toward us from the sidelines, the referee I assumed. He stopped a short distance away, but directly between myself and Mr. Happy Man Mountain. "We are going to have a civilized fight today, no killing, no severing of limbs, and try to refrain from hits below the belt." He paused for a moment, for questions I guess. But after he got none,so he continued. "The fight is over when one fighter either gives up, is knocked out, obviously defeated or the judges decide that his life is in danger of he continues. The fight will start at the whistle." And then he turned his back and jogged off to where ever he came from.

A second later the whistle blew.

The next thing I saw was a block of iron the size of Zuko's old cruiser coming at my face. Ducking down I quickly drew my sword; why hadn't I done that before? Damn I needed to get control of this fight -the Warhammer slammed into the earth where I had been only moments ago- fast.

"Run little monkey man, Kujo will smash you." Hollered the troll as the Warhammer breezed over my head. By now the crowed had worked itself back up to near explosive levels.

That was enough of that.

I watched all of the hairy muscles of Kujo strain as he reversed the course of his heavy Warhammer. Timing it perfectly I jumped a fraction of a second before I turned into a puddle of jelly and almost laughed out loud as I felt my foot successfully touch down on the head of the death stick. Not waiting for a second I ran up the long shaft of wood, putting my balance to the absolute test. Just as I kicked off of his hand, Kujo's slow brain finally caught onto what was going on, but by then it was to late. Twisting in mid-air I slashed with the tip of my sword, cutting the ties holding his vest on that ran along his right shoulder. As I passed in front of his face and kicked off of his chest I saw the slow surprise forming on his dull features.

Well, better late then never I guess.

The moment my feet his the dirt, I immediately rolled between his legs and came up behind him. Getting a grip on the back of his belt I kicked off of the ground and launched myself up, getting a foothold in the small of his back and was again on his shoulders just as he brought the hammer down into the patch of dirt I had landed on right after jumping off of him the first time. I almost laughed at how far behind my moves he was, as I slashed though the ties on his left shoulder this time. Running over his shoulder I added insult to injury by shaving of half his beard with a careful thrust. My work done for the moment I decided it would only be polite to let him catch up with what was going on, so I dropped to the ground again and waited for him to figure out what had happened.

His eyes narrowed at the pile of dirty and scraggly hair on the ground, after a second he ran a hand over the bald part of his face. His eyes snapped to me with lethal intensity as he bellowed a thunderous war cry and resumed his mindless pounding of the ground. I couldn't hold it back any longer, I roared with laughter as I easily ducked and dodged every one of his brutal blows. I did a quick back-flip -cool, I didn't know I could do that- and watched with glee as his face got redder and redder until be looked like he was going to pop.

With a sigh I decided it was time to finish this.

I kicked off the hard earth again, immediately building a good head of speed and grabbed his belt just as I passed, redirecting my momentum so that I swung up and landed feet first on his back. With two quick jab of my sword I cut the only remaining ties holing is heavy leather vest on. Just as the heavy leather started to shift I grabbed a handful of his hair -disgustingly greasy hair- and let the vest fall down beneath my feet and around his. A fraction of a second later the crash of his Warhammer hitting the ground shook the immediate area and Kujo swayed on his feet, only to fall on his face with a little help from me. And as I was standing on his back when he fell I didn't have far to go to press my sword to his throat.

I stood on the behemoth's vast and hairy back for several seconds as he thrashed about, but both his arms and legs were trapped by the leather vest, and eventually he stopped struggling and laid still his head pressed into the earth in defeat. It was then that I realized that sometime during the fight the entire crowd had again fallen silent.

Except for the sound of my own heart thundering with adrenaline and the wheezing of Kujo the silence was deafening. At least until that same echoing announcers voice spoke up again.

"In an indisputable victory Ghost has defeated the previous Soudatsu's champion in a minute and three seconds." The reaction was almost immediate, it seemed like the audience had been waiting for confirmation of the fantastic thing they had just seen. Having it, they exploded in the loudest roar I had ever heard. Screams, whistles, mindless cheering echoed back on itself in the arena and redoubled. My heart started to pound again as the screams grew louder and louder, and when I stepped off of Kujo and raised my sword in triumph I was nearly blown back by the combined voices of a thousand ecstatic fans.

It started slowly from the back somewhere, I couldn't even tell which side started first, but the next thing I knew they were chanting. Among the roars and screams I heard a single word being chanted over and over, and every time it was repeated more people joined in until the entire stadium was chanting my fighting name.

_"Ghost!"_

_"Ghost!"_

_"Ghost!"_

I was thrilled that I had won so easily and that the crowd seemed to like me now. But still, something tugged at the back of my mind. I couldn't help but feel like I had forgotten something very important, something about my costume. But whatever, I was victorious, it could wait until later when i was with the others.

_"Ghost!"_

_"Ghost!"_

_"Ghost!"_

Wait, the others.

_"Ghost!"_

_"Ghost!"_

Toph.

_"Ghost!"_

_"Ghost!"_

I looked down at my costume and my heart sunk.

Oh, bloody hell.

* * *

**Jade Knight**

**Richard Caine**


	4. Stone and Steel

_Disclaimer: Le Gasp! I own nothing! wait... I own Sokka's kick ass 'Ghost mask!" KOOL!_

_

* * *

__K, last chapter i asked what you all thought Sokka forgot... well the winning guesses were (in order of review date) I have no prizes to give other then to have your name mentioned at the top of the chapter, sorry if you were expecting more._

**_1st_ _H-Bomber _**

_**2nd DragonZap (sorry... Bomber was just that much faster) **_

_**3rd PureAngel86 (although you made like four guesses... lol)**_

_alrighty... enough talking_

**Curtain up!**

* * *

**Sokka: Master of the Black Sword**

By: The Jade Knight

Beta and creative consultant: Richard Caine

* * *

**-Tournament Saga- **

**Chapter 4**

**-**

The Story of Sokka

Chapter 4: Stone and Steel

**-**

The crowd was still roaring and chanting my name as I turned around and walked out of the Battle Pit. Behind me I heard the sounds of several stage hands and medics helping Kujo get out of his vest. I had just won my first formal match, I should be excited, but I was scared. How could I have been so stupid? I kept forgetting that Toph was blind, but that was with little things like the menu yesterday, never something like this. She recognized people by their footsteps and heart beat and other things like that, a mask and a change of cloths wasn't going to hide me from her. What would Toph say? I knew that she had been supportive of me entering the tournament, but that still didn't change the fact that I had done it behind her back.

"Brenton!" I turned around looking for the source of the voice and saw Salazar coming toward me, only now he wore a silver chain mail vest over his Fire-Nation Army cloths. "Damn boy, you never told me you were that _good!_"

I shrugged as I shoved the venomous thoughts into the back of my mind for a few minutes. The last thing I needed was Salazar asking me what was wrong. My mask hid a smug little smile that formed on my face, but I'm sure he could hear it on my voice. "I'm an okay fighter, I just got lucky by being paired with the type of opponent I do best against."

"Luck has nothing to do with it!" shouted Salazar over the slowly subduing audience. "I fought Kujo for the semi-finals last year and ended up in the hospital for two weeks afterwards."

"Really?" I asked, genuinely surprised, Kujo was a push over and Salazar looked bad-ass, there was no way he got beaten that bad. That couldn't be right, he was just saying that to boost my confidence.

"Yes really, that guy is vicious, spiteful and a pain in the ass to fight. But you, I have never seen anyone do the things you did. Did Piando teach you all that?"

Uh oh, I am going to have to be a little more careful when putting my Earth and Water styles to use. "No, well kind of. He taught me to be flexible, to not become a slave to any one style, 'to be predictable is to be dead' and all that."

"Did he say that?" Asked Salazar with a lopsided grin.

"Say what?"

"'To be predictable is to be dead'?"

"No, I just made that up." I said.

"Well Brenton, those are wise words indeed." He said as the audience finally calmed down and the announcer spoke up again. "My fights next, you got time to watch? It might be a good idea if we have to fight each other. I shouldn't be telling you that seeing as you are the competition and all, but I want at least one good fight from this blasted tournament."

"What? Why would I fight you?"

"Didn't you look at the combat chart they have set up on pretty much every flat surface?"

"No," I said honestly. "I was pretty nervous, I guess I missed it. Why?"

"Well, we're in neighboring brackets. So if both of us stay undefeated we'll be fighting for the semi's." I looked him over again. He was bigger then me, big enough to make it my advantage, but I would have to keep a few moves a secret if I wanted to catch him off guard.

"That sounds awesome-" I started, but then the announcer came back on and asked the next two fighters to go down to the fighting pit. It didn't seem to take them to long to fix the door Kujo had destroyed, maybe that was a common occurrence here. I hoped so, the bigger they are the easier I win. "Well I guess I should be getting back into the stands."

"Alright see you later kid." Salazar said dropping his hand painfully on my shoulder. "Oh hey, It's kind of a tradition for me and Yoten to get together in the evening of the first day of the fights, you know just me, him and his kids. We'd be honored if you'd come too."

That sounded pretty good, but how would I get away from the guys? "That sounds great but-"

"No excuses. We'd all like you to come, and feel free to being a guest, my treat." And then he flashed me one of those knowing grins my sister always had, damn was it contagious or something? What had Yoten told him?

"Alright, I promise I'll try." I said in an exasperated voice. "But I can't guarantee anything."

"Fair enough." He said as he took out a little pencil and paper from one of his pockets and wrote down the name and directions to the place they were meeting. Then he passed it to me as he strapped on his own mask, a moment later an orange fox was grinning back at me. "Wish me luck?"

"Good luck, until we fight." I said cockily, earning a laugh. Then some official looking guy came over and asked me politely to move out of the fighters pit so they could get underway again.

-

I was climbing the stairs up into the stands, back in my Fire-Nation clothes, my costume inside the black bag over my shoulder a few minutes later. Down in the Battle Pit Salazar and some small guy squared off. I knew it would be a good idea to watch and study him, but I had a problem. I was scared again; I almost felt like I was going to throw up. I found I was much more scared of breaking Toph's trust then I was the other two. It felt like I could get back on the other two's good sides eventually. But Toph was like a rock, if you got on her bad side once you would get crushed. But for some reason I found the prospect of losing her trust much more worrying then anything she might do to me.

Needless to say I was a wreck by the time I got back to the seats. I spotted my sister in that red dress first, next to her Aang seemed to be describing something very animately ... and then I saw Toph. She was sitting in her seat surrounded by people many times her size, sometimes you forgot how dangerous she was, deceptively small and all that. As I drew closer she turned her face toward me and grinned wickedly, then she held a single silent finger to her lips.

I almost screamed in joy. The ball of molten steel that had settled in the bottom of my stomach packed up its bags and left. She wasn't mad, I was so relived I could almost jump in excitement. But I had to keep face. I was ecstatic that Toph was okay with it, but Aang and definitely Katara would not understand.

"Oh my god, Sokka did you see that last guy!" Aang practically screamed in my face as I dropped down into the seat between him and Toph trying to act as cool as I could.

"Yeah, I got a little lost on they way back but I was able to see the match. What did you think of that Ghost guy?" I asked as innocently as I could even though I think everyone heard Toph snort.

"He was like zoom, and pow, and then he ran right up the big guy's back! It was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen!" yelled Aang as he mimicked stabbing a sword in mid-air. "And then he cut the guy's cloths and he fell on his own face and it was so awesome!"

I laughed at his enthusiasm. I didn't think I was that good but it was nice to get the praise, at least indirectly. Even Katara seemed a little red in the face from cheering along with the crowd, and then Aang brought up another thing I had forgotten.

"He even had a black sword like Sokka's." He said, and then he frowned and looked at me with a pensive look on his face. "Actually, exactly like yours."

"Aang," said my sister with a kind expression. "Its a guy thing, they all want to be the bad boy with the black sword. They think it's cool."

"Oh, okay then." Accepted Aang. I almost laughed, it was about damn time karma found someone else to pick on. And just as I thought that the man behind me accidentally dumped his drink into my lap.

Or not.

-

Today's Soudatsu matches were completed by about three in the afternoon, and since fighters only fought once a day my next match was not until tomorrow. I had studied Salazar's fighting style carefully and found that he seemed to switch between a pure power offense and a style that worked much like the Water style, using an opponents power against him. He could be a problem, a real challenge. I was almost trembling with excitement.

It was about four when we got back to the encampment, and for a while I was preoccupied with trying to make a plan to get away form the others. I could figure out how to break into the Fire-Nation but I couldn't get away from my companions. Yeah, I'm a brilliant tactician.

Aang seemed to be playing some game with Momo, Appa had wandered away somewhere to eat an entire field's worth of grass and Toph and Katara were putting their head together as they sorted through the things we had bought yesterday. I had offered to help but they told me to go play with my sword somewhere else. I was just starting to worry that Toph was telling Katara about my exploits in the arena when Katara stood up, the last of the things sorted out and packed away on Appa's saddle.

"Alright, Aang," my sister called. A moment later Aang came back into the cave, Momo trailing behind him. "Its our turn to get the fire wood."

"But it's Sokka and Toph's turn to go get the wood." Whined Aang as his face fell. I didn't know what Katara was doing but I liked it already.

"We all agree thats it supposed to be a 'Sokka Day' remember? That includes _excluding_ him from his meal time duties."

"But why does Toph get to be left out to?"

"Would you rather go into the woods with Toph or me?" Katara asked, earning a smile and submission from Aang.

Hey, wait. What the hell was that supposed to mean?

I glared at Katara in her little red robe that annoyed me so much. What did she mean by that last part? I turned my glare on Aang and an embarrassed blush formed on his face. I knew he was supposed to be the saviour of the world and all that, but if he didn't keep his hands to himself I would skin him alive and be damned with the world.

"Sokka," growled Katara, matching my glare. For several seconds we faced off until I glanced away. Alright, I trusted my sister, and I trusted Aang. I just didn't trust Aang's hormones. But I also knew that he wasn't capable of hurting any one he cared about, especially Katara. With a little defeated sigh, I shot Aang one last hard look that said 'watch your hands'.

"Alright Aang, come on." And with that Katara lead the way out of the cave. For several moments there was silence after the two left, until it was broken by Toph.

"So, Ghost huh?" Asked Toph from her place leaning up against Appa's saddle. I knew that she knew about my other identity, but the name still sounded weird coming from her.

"Yeah, after I picked out the costume the name just kind of clicked."

"I know. Aang wouldn't shut up abut how much you moved like a real spirit, 'almost gliding' is what he said." I swelled with pride as she spoke, "But I felt you stumble at least three times walking from the door to the center of the arena."

Damn.

"But to everyone that didn't have an unfair advantage I looked kick-ass." I responded, injecting a bit of slyness into my voice, I expected Toph to laugh or at least try to playfully knock me back down. But instead she let out an exasperated sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"I see we're going to have to have a talk."

"What? About what?" I asked confused.

"The attitude you have about fighting. If we don't do something about it we're going to have to stick you back together after you get slaughtered." That's not what I expected from her at all. "Okay, there are several unwritten rules of tournament fighting, but they apply to pretty much anything where there is a crowd or admirers."

"Okay." I said slowly not really seeing where this was going. I had never heard of any unwritten rules of anything, but if they were unwritten I guess I wouldn't. Toph nodded over to the large logs we had set up around the fire-pit like benches. I followed her over and sat down facing her over the blackened pit. The sun was starting to go down and it was shining a nice golden light into the mouth of the cave. I blanked out again for a moment as I just drank in the sight of a golden wreathed Toph

For a long time she just sat there, deep in thought, and when she finally spoke every word was weighted and chosen carefully. "You have to understand that there will always be people who tell you that you are the greatest, or that you are invincible, undefeatable, or that you are simply number one at what you do, generally worshiping you. After the dust falls, the matches are over and you're at an after-party or talking to fans, its okay to be swept up in the praise; to believe you are the best. But when it's all said and done you have to know, really _know,_ that you are just another person: that there is always someone better, that you can fall at anytime. You have to_ know_ that you are just a single being in the grand scheme of things, and that you are not _any_ different than the guy next to you. You have to _know_ that you were just that much faster up until now, but that could change in an instant and you could be brought to your knees."

That hit me a little hard. When she had started talking I was still smiling, but now my face was serious as I felt the strength in her words that only comes when someone really _believes_ in what they say.

"You remember the Boulder right."

I nodded.

"Well, he has almost always come in second in the Earth Rumbles, just a single step away from victory. First it was always a guy named Arckon that took the top spot, and then it was me after I joined. But the Boulder never stood a chance at victory because everyone told him he was already the best, that Arckon and myself were just barely able to take the title from him, that he would definitely win next time. And he _believed _them. Do you see how believing that defeated him even before he stepped into the ring?"

I thought for a mere moment before the answer slapped me in the face. "Because he believed he was _already_ the greatest he never put his all into training or his fights. He thought everyone was inferior and underestimated them all."

"Exactly," Toph said with a nod of her own. "He believed he was already the greatest, so he never pushed himself. He never put his all into anything and that doomed him before he even entered the arena. A true fighter understands that there is always someone faster, stronger, more powerful. They understand that they might meet their ender at any moment and be knocked from the top."

"Wow," I breathed. "Did you figure out all of that on your own?"

"No, when I first entered the Earth Rumble and placed third Arckon took me aside and explained it to me."

"Why'd he do that?" I asked.

"Well because he was only a little older then me and he could relate to my situation."

_He? Relate? _I suddenly felt a wave of fear sweep through me. How close had she gotten to this Arckon guy? "So what happened with this Arckon?" I asked as innocently as I could, hoping none of my feelings managed to make their way into my voice.

"He had to go back to his home town shortly after he won the fourth Earth Rumble. I haven't seen him in two years but he was right when he said all of this. If you believe the crowd you will be doomed to lose before you even start. You have to be humble, and a little fear is always good. It makes you try just _that _much harder."

"I think I get it." I said satisfied with her explanation of Arckon. So I focused back on what she had said before, turning it all over in my head.

"Good." She replied standing back up and dusting off her clothes. "Now come with me."

"Okay," I answered, a little lost, but I still followed her. She led me out of the cave and down a little path that had been worn by some woodland animals that had lived in the cave at one time or another. Finally we stepped out into the small clearing that sat a short distance aways form the mouth of the cave. It was only about seventy feet from one side to the other, and surrounded by a tightly paced ring of various breeds of tree. In the center of the clearing was a single rocky outcropping near one end, but other than that it was a mostly flat expanse of ankle high grass rippling in the wind like the ocean. Toph walked a little further away before she turned around and squared off against me.

"Alright Snoozles, let's see what you can really do. Give me everything or I will bust you, little man."

My mouth dropped so fast I swore I tasted dirt. I absorbed her delightedly malicious expression, while my brain tried to catch up to her words. "What? Are you insane? I'm not going to fight you!"

"Well then this is going to hurt because I'm going to fight you." She said. I'd seen that smirk before. It was the 'pain smirk'. Crap.

"Wait - but the - what about - ahh!" I cried, as a small column of earth shot straight up from beneath my feet, knocking me off balance and onto my back. Quickly I scrambled to my feet, just as a rock the size of my head slammed into the earth where I had just been. I looked up into Toph's beautiful misty eyes for a moment trying to figure out what she was trying to do, because those attacks -if you could call them that- were so slow even Kujo could have dodged them and gotten bored.

And then I understood.

"Okay, I'll spar with you, and I promise to give it my best shot. Just wait a second okay?" I said, receiving a gruff nod, her face bright with an excited flush and her eyes sparkling with anticipation.

I got to my feet and looked her over. She was still the same girl that made my mind go blank if I watched to long, but something was different about her now. She seemed almost like she was bouncing as she stood perfectly still, her face was lit up brighter then I had seen it in a long time. This was the Toph that I had first started to notice, the_ Warrior Toph._ The girl who loved a fight and hated being looked at as weak or broken. The girl who had blown me away as she tore through first the Earth-Benders of the Earth Rumble competition and then later entire platoons of Fire-Benders and Dai-li alike. This was the Toph that made my heart beat fast and my logic fail me. The power, the passion; she was a true warrior.

And then it hit me, in a once in a life time flash of inspiration I understood her character. If she was to ever let me into her heart. it would not be with flowers and kind words. Later? Yes, those things will be important to her. But first I had to show her that I considered her an equal or the more likely, judging from the fact that I didn't expect to win this sparring match even though I _would_ give her everything I had, a superior. I had to show her that I didn't consider her weak, show her that I understand that she was an independent and strong woman, and show her that this was a quality that I desired in her. Only when I had shown her that I would not baby her or talk down to her, would she start to allow me inside her defenses; allow herself to rely on me, lean on me if she needed to.

Shaking my head to get myself back in the game I understood why she had challenged me, and I knew why I would participate in this match, and likely more to come. But I still did not understand why she had initiated it. Why would Toph - wait, That's it!

I was trying to think of her from the wrong perspective. She _was_ a warrior, and I was a new opponent, a way to test her power. And like I realized a while back there hadn't been much resistance from the Fire-Nation for a long while. She had gotten bored, and she _had_ said she loved to fight.

Wait, I was the _only_ way to test her powers! Until now she had not known there was someone in the group that she could challenge and because we hadn't had any resistance she must have been going out of her mind. She couldn't fight Aang and have a chance of winning in a straight spar, he was the bloody Avatar!.And Katara was a Water-Bender; Earth and Water mixed awkwardly to say the least. Although I had to admit that watching Toph mud-wrestle wasn't exactly an unwanted thought. Again she would not have a fair and challenging battle; not a raw test of her skills. Katara needed to be near a large water source to rival Toph's Earth-Bending strength. But being that close to water would also soak the earth until it was water logged, giving Katara the power of grabbing any earth Toph sent at her and send it right back.

Now she'd found out that I had reached a level with my blade that could test her without defeating her before we even started. Or ending in mud wrestling. Mmm... that takes me to my happy place. No wonder she was so excited, I had just presented myself as an equal.

Sweet.

"So, are you going to spar or am I going to have to convince you?" She asked with an arched eyebrow. With a wide grin I drew my sword from the sheath over my back. And as Toph heard my sword being drawn she gave her own wicked grin that made my stomach flop. Steadying my nerves I squared off, determined to show Toph that I was an equal.

Now how the hell was I going to last more then five seconds against the world's greatest Earth-Bender? Ah, damn. Suddenly the down sides of this brilliant plan of mine barred their ugly teeth. Okay, what were the weaknesses of Toph's fighting Style? Well she was blind, but she used that to her advantage. She sensed my movements no matter how fast or sneaky I was, and on top of that she used a very non-conventional style of Earth-Bending. Most benders tore great hunks of earth and rock from the ground and sent it hurtling at their enemies. But Toph always attacked from under the ground, essentially making her opponents blind to her attacks.

Oh bloody hell, I was screwed. All that I could really do was move as fast and unpredictably as I could. Keep my speed maxed out and put every odd and, well ... idiotic move in my arsenal to use. I would have to surprise her until I could work out a better strategy.

Yup, I was going to be smashed into pudding.

I slid fluidly into my Scorpion stance, looking down the black edge of my sword at Toph. "Anytime you're ready."

Her reaction was almost immediate, Toph brought both of her fists to her chest and thrust them out to either side with fierce force. The sound of thunder filled the air as the earth between my feet cracked and started to separate. Had I been a little slower I would have fallen in. I know it wouldn't have been dangerous, this was a sparring match after all; but it would have been the end of the fight. I was fast however, faster then Toph had anticipated judging from the way her beautiful eyes widened in surprise as I leapt away from the opening pit and came right at her, my feet pounding the hard earth.

I was maybe ten feet from her before she violently thrust a fist straight up in the air, creating a wall of stone between us. I knew what was coming because I had seen her fight a hundred times before. But I also knew that if I let on that I knew, she would do something different. So I kept up the speed and ran straight at the wall, my sword raised in a way that would seem that I planned on trying to slice through the wall. I counted that she would remember that my sword was kept razor sharp and could easily cut through a measly five inches of compressed earth.

When I was just within thrusting range of the wall half of the bloody thing tore off and flew at me, and since I was only three feet away it didn't give me a whole lot of time to react. But luckily I didn't need a lot of time. Kicking off of the ground I rose in the air just high enough to use her improvised projectile as a springboard, launching myself over her wall.

She had cleverly kept the bottom of her projectile wall connected to the ground and slid it at me rather then threw it, so she felt when I use it as a kick-plate and knew I had penetrated her defenses and was about to claim victory. The look of total shock on her pretty face was priceless. She must have thought that when I had fought Kujo I had opened up with everything, and she must have thought she knew exactly how fast I could move.

Ha. I wondered what would happened when she figured out that I was_ still_ holding just a little back. I brought my sword down, planning on stopping about a foot away from her, when she suddenly smiled at me and dropped away, right into the earth.

_What the hell?_

Damn, I forgot _she_ could move under the earth for short distances. I had seen her use it while she had been training Aang a while back. I hit the ground and quickly spun in a tight circle. Where was she going to pop up. I knew she could only stay down there for a few seconds, she would have to come back up right away.

Where was she? Behind?

With a battle cry Toph exploded up out of the earth right in _front_ of me, the last place I expected. I barely finished my surprised gasp before a pillar of earth rose up diagonally out of the ground behind her and threatened to slam painfully into my chest. Getting my balance I jumped, hoping I could time it right and brought my feet up to my former chest level. A fraction of a second later the entire force of the pillar was thrust through my knees and into my chest, firing me back like a cannon ball toward the tree line at the edge of the clearing.

I heard a gasp from Toph. Obviously she hadn't expected me to pull off such a move. I was about half way to cracking my head on a tree when I heard a bit of Earth-Bending behind me and assumed that she had created something to catch me. Ha, sorry Toph, the fight ain't over yet. I jammed my sword into the earth that blew past under me, creating a pivot point that brought me crashing to my knees twenty feet short of the trees and fifteen feet short of the curved wall of soft earth Toph had placed to save me.

Getting to my feet as fast as possible I ran straight back the way I came as fast as I possibly could -holding nothing back- roaring with everything left in my lungs. The look of worry and fear on Toph's face when I was speeding toward the tree line quickly shifted to surprise and then excitement between my steps. With her grin back in place Toph stomped her left foot into the earth as hard as she could, but I was ready. I banked to the right sharply, ignoring the screaming from my left shoulder as it slammed into the column of earth that appeared in the middle of my previous path. Then her right foot stomped hard, and with my near perfect timing I again dodged the column meant to break my charge. In the thirty feet that I covered between my landing place and Toph's little defensive wall I dodged her attacks thirteen times. I raised my sword again, a forest of earthy needles raising behind me as I was about to win.

And then she got me. I had not considered that she would bend a new attack from the remains of an old one. So when the center of her defensive wall caught me in the side I laid on the ground gasping for breath for several seconds before I realized what happened.

"Bloody (gasp) hell." I wheezed, staring up at the mostly blue sky. A moment later Toph flopped down on the ground beside me. Looking over I felt the fatigue and soreness in my limbs lift somewhat as I saw how beautiful she looked, cheeks rosie with exhilaration and her hair wind-whipped and tussled. A moment later she got up and walked over to the cave, I took this time to gasp like a hurricane, trying to get my breath back. I had been image training and strength training for months now, but this was the first time in a long time I had really opened up with everything I had.

"You okay?" She asked as she dropped back down beside me again, two very cold and very delicious looking water bottles in her hands. I gratefully accepted the one she held out to me and guzzled half of it before I answered.

"Yeah, I'm just not used to going all out."

"So was that everything you had, or are you still holding back?" she asked threateningly. I laughed, knowing if I lied and said no she would make me fight again.

"No, that was everything I had."

"Good." she said taking another sip from her water bottle. "I really kicked your sorry ass huh?"

I roared with laughter at that, but admitted it non the less. "Yeah, you really did. But I almost got you quite a few times, I saw your face drop."

"Yeah, you held back a lot when you fought that Kujo guy. I knew you did, I could feel it, I just never guessed that you were holding back that much."

"Yup, next time I might win."

"Dream on sword-boy."

"Well, we'll just have to spar more often then won't we?"

"And let you inflate you male ego even more?" Toph nearly yelled, but I could see that she was ecstatic at the thought of more fights like these. Sweet. And then an idea struck me. I toyed with it for a while, fidgeting with the water bottle for a little while until Toph cut through my thoughts.

"Sokka, what is it?"

"Well," I started, not sure how to ask. "One of the other fighters and the guy who made my costume, kind of friends of mine, are having this sort of after-party. It's supposed to be us and the old guy's kids. Just a little celebration, as such, and they said that I could bring a guest ... and I was kind of wondering if you would want to come along." Oh damn I hope I didn't go to far, I knew she was starting to open up a little but what if I was being to up front?

Wait, was that a little bit of a blush on her cheeks? Or was it still from the fight? "Sure, I guess I could come along."

_Booyah!_

"Alright." I said, feeling like I wanted to scream from the moon that she accepted. I'm no git, I knew this wasn't nothing like a date, but it was a step in the right direction. Right?

"We're back!" shouted Katara as she walked out of the tree line and stopped dead. The walls and columns that had been raised by Toph during our spar were still standing proud. Oh hell, what would Katara think?

"Hey guys, you're back! I was going out of my mind with boredom; had to do some exercises to keep from passing out." Said Toph innocently. I fought the victorious smile that wanted out as Katara accepted this. And then Aang appeared from the trees carrying a huge stack of wood, many times that of Katara's little arm load. Good, arms had hands, and full arms weren't wandering arms. And it _was_ the gentlemanly thing to do after all.

Did I feel a little over protective? Yes. But I was her brother, it's what I'm meant to do.

-

"So I told Katara that I had gotten some Soudatsu after-party tickets and she didn't say anything more about it." Said Toph as we walked down the streets of the town. It was getting on in the evening and the sun was just barely staying above the horizon, bathing everything in a orange light.

"Oh," I said. I had just asked her what she had told Katara about us leaving to go somewhere without them. "But didn't she say anything about only us two going and not her and Aang?"

"No, because I gave her some story about how I had only been with you guys for, like eight months and you were the only one I hadn't really gotten to know yet. I talked to Aang all the time when we earth trained, and since we always used to divide up the chores by gender I think I know quite a bit about Katara. But I said that I hadn't talked to you alone all that much."

"You're good at manipulating people." I said with a grin.

"I was always sneaking away from my guards and over protective parents to train and fight. Getting away from Katara is easy," she said, an evil little giggle escaping from her chest.

We were only a few blocks from the family restaurant that Salazar had told me we were all meeting them at, when I got run over by something with a very hard head. With a shout I fell painfuly on my back and just laid there for a moment trying to will away the nausea. I drew a few gasps as the stars slowly faded from my vision before I felt Toph help me up. A moment later I could see again and the first thing I saw with my watery vision was ... a stone tube?

It was about a foot long and pretty thick, almost as big around as my forearm. It was made of some sort of old white rock, carefully carved into strange depictions of burning and decimated landscapes. They were beautifully nightmarish. And although the details were still startlingly stark, it must have been _very_ old. The white stone was slightly yellowed with age and there were multiple chips and nicks in it. It also looked like it had survived many attempts to destroy it: burns and water damage ravaged the engravings everywhere. Finally at either end there were thick black caps that were sealed with knotted red wax.

There was something wrong with this scroll, I couldn't describe it but it gave off this ... _black_ aura. Now, I'm not one to believe in auras and all that crap, but this scroll felt like it shouldn't exist, like it had caused countless deaths and destroyed some of the greatest wonders of this word. It was dark and it was fearsome and it needed to be wiped from the face of the planet before it could kill again. But as quickly as I spied it, it vanished into the sleeve of the girl I had run into.

"Are you okay?" Toph asked facing me.

"Yeah." I groaned rubbing the back of my neck. Looking at the girl I could still feel the scroll. She seemed frightened. She was watching me with the eyes of a cornered animal. She took a few steps back from me, her short chopped hair -almost boyish really- was a dark brown and looked like it hadn't been combed or groomed in a while. She wore simple travel worn cloths, a plain black shirt and worn brown pants. Combined with her average looks and thin build she could blend into the background of any town or crowd. But it seemed a little forced, like she was _trying_ to hide.

"Are you okay? We collided pretty hard." I asked, genuinely concerned for her heath. She looked at me a second longer before she turned and ran as fast as she could in the opposite direction. "Hey, we don't want to hurt you!" I called after her retreating back. But she never turned around or gave any indication that she had heard me. A second later I could almost swear that I had seen a little flash of blue about the collar of her shirt just as she vanished from view.

"Well that was rude!" Said Toph facing the way the girl had ran. "She almost kills you and then she runs."

-

The 'Red Komodo' had just come into sight as we rounded a corner, the setting sun at our backs, when I stopped Toph and pulled her aside into the shadows of an alley.

"Okay Toph, stop for a second." Looking around I made sure we wouldn't be overheard before I continued. "We're going to have to use fake names while were in here."

"Why?" She said defiantly.

"Well, Sokka is an obvious Water Tribe name, if you started calling me that in there someone might get suspicious. And your name is also a little unique, I have never heard of any Toph's aside from you. If they find your out your name they might think about the Bei Fong family, and as their only daughter is blind and you at least_ look _blind we could all be waking up tomorrow with a fireball breakfast."

She considered this for several long moments, letting me sweat it out before she answered. "Alright, I get it." She said finally. "So what names are we going to use?"

"Well," I started. "I've already introduced myself to these people as Brenton so-"

"Brenton?!" Toph cried with a snort.

"Hey I like it." I said defensively, as she snickered. "Okay, enough laughing. What are we going to call you?"

The wind rustled the branches of a nearby tree as we fell silent. "Well, Toph is a pretty name so whatever we use should be too. How do you feel abut Lily?"

Toph mumbled that it was okay before she started to the building her face a little flush. Looking up at the sky I guessed that she was red in the face because it was a cool night, we should be getting inside.

The building was pretty featureless, just your standard boxy brown building with the name declared over the doorway in big stylized red letters. We walked in the plain oak windowless doors and a crowed and excited scene met us. There were tables everywhere filled with families or couples, all smiling and laughing and eating. The lights overhead were soft and inviting, casting a faint yellow glow across everything. Along the walls were dozens upon dozens of brilliant works of art and covering the floor was a brilliantly red carpet that sunk in expensively as we walked upon it. Looking around I followed my nose to the far end of the room where a pair of white doors that obviously lead to the kitchen tempted the stomach.

"Good evening, do you have a reservation?" Asked a young man coming toward us clutching a few menus to the chest of his red and gold uniform.

"Uhh, sort of," I said a little unsure of how I was supposed to act. "We were invited to join Yoten and Salazar-"

"Oh yes, Mister Salazar's party. This way sir and miss." Said the young man with a smile, before he turned and lead us across the room to another set of doors, black this time. Once through them we found ourselves in a short corridor with many doors on either side.

"Just a heads up," I whispered, leaning in to Toph's ear. "There may be an admirer of yours here." She shot me a quizzical look but I just shrugged. Yes, she could feel me shrug. She said she felt the way the weight shifted when someone shrugged and knew when they did it, or something like that.

"Mister Salazar is not here yet but his other guests are right through here. Please make yourselves comfortable, we will be taking orders as soon as Mister Salazar arrives," said the young man, as he opened a random door just like every other one in the hall. But I just lead the way in, with Toph close behind me. As soon as we were inside the young man close the door with a slight 'thump' that sounded through this new room. Looking up I noticed that besides us there were only three other people in the room. Yoten looked like he did last time, a little on the old side but with the face of a kind and caring father. This time he was dressed in something almost semi-formal with a twist of casual, one of his own works no doubt. It was a pale shirt beneath a sort of formal jacket that had a casual cut to it and neatly ironed slacks.

I suddenly felt a little under dressed in my unusual Fire-Nation cloths.

"Brenton my boy, that was a brilliant show you put on today." Said Yoten as he got up from his chair at the single stretched table sitting in the center of the small room and shook my hand. There were a few pitchers of some orange coloured juice spaced over the deep crimson table cloth. The chairs were all fancy but looked very comfortable and in front of each was set a sparkling white plate and silverware. I only counted six places set so I assumed that were we only waiting on Salazar now. The room was spacious enough, even though it was kind of small. Not claustrophobic, that's what I mean. The walls were painted a deep cream and looked heavily textured and a single ocean view painting hung on the far wall.

"Are you going to introduce us to your lady friend?" Asked Yoten with a sly smile as two giggles came from behind him.

"This is Lily, a close friend of mine." I said taking a step back as Yoten gently grasped Toph's hand, he frowned a bit when he looked into her eyes but she immediately asked him a question about something and distracted him. I took this moment to get a look at the other two occupied chairs where the giggles had come from.

Sitting in the furthest chair was a girl of about fourteen with long hair the same shade as Yoten's so I assumed she was his elder daughter. She looked at me with curious eyes that drifted over my shoulder. Looking for my sword I assumed, but as this was a family restaurant I felt it would be in bad taste to bring in a weapon. She also seemed to be wearing one of her fathers creations, a simple yet elegant dress in a brilliant yellow. Normaly that colour might be atrocious on a person but it went together nicely with her sharp face and wavy dark hair.

Next to her I assumed was Shoji. Unlike her father and sister she had a round face with sunshine blond hair cut a little shorter then her sisters. She must take more after her mother. She got up, her soft green dress flowing prettily. I almost laughed, It looked like I was lucky with only one sister to look after. Poor Yoten was going to have a terrible time beating away the boys from these two beauty queens. Suddenly Shoji's blue eyes grew wide as she took a second look at Toph.

I grinned. I wondered what she would do.

In truth I expected her to either be speechless or to started talking like a motormouth. What I didn't expect was her to scream loud enough to shatter my ear drums. I cried out, clamping my hands over my ears. I was kind of aware of her running past me -still screaming- but I think she scrambled my brain.

"What the bloody hell was that?" I yelled, trying to figure out which way the floor was so I could dig myself a hole and hide. Shoji then went from a long endless scream to speaking in a voice so high it would make dolphin ears bleed. Bloody hell; that sound can't be natural.

-

Later, after my ability to hear returned, and Toph stopped laughing at me we had proper introductions. After that Shoji and Toph were inseparable, talking abut Earth-Bending and other rocky things. Yoten's other daughter was named Rinyu, but she preferred to be called just Rin. Apparently her sister was the bender in the family -she got it from their mother- But Rin was no girly-girl herself, she had a passion for fighting that rivaled Toph's, but she preferred the blade much like I did.

We spent a long while talking about how I trained and who I had had as a master. Rin told me about the Earth Kingdom style of blade combat and it seemed intriguing. Unlike everything I had learned so far it It was a purely power based fighting style. I was really interested and hoped that in the near future I would get a chance to learn that style as well.

I was just teaching Rin a few basic meditation exercises when Salazar came in, still dressed in his Fire-Nation uniform. As soon as he came in all Earth Kingdom talk was dropped and the fake names were used again. I felt a little bad for not telling him the truth, but he was a captain in the Fire-Nation military; we couldn't afford to let him suspect anything. The rest of the night went smoothly: fun, laughs, the whole bit. Toph and Shoji got to be pretty good friends even though Toph was six years older. And Rin and I got along okay to, we had fun talking to Salazar and Yoten about the upcoming matches.

The only time I felt a little something wrong was when I introduced him to Toph. I could have imagined it. But I could have sworn I saw recognition in Salazar's eyes, if only for a fraction of a second.

**  
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**The Jade Knight**

**Richard Caine**


	5. The Forgotten Past

_Disclaimer: I own nothing but pocket lint and a pretty good imagination... BooHoo_

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_Okay people big announcement. If you got this tale on Story Alert you jumped right here, well_ **I GOT A BETA!** _I know, awsome huh? that means less grammar and spelling misteaks as well as a few more jokes. bounce back to the AN's at the top of chapter one for a little intro of Richard Caine!_

_Second little thing; I am currently trying to get Forum up. I hope it will be fun, you readers can toss throries around and well have a higher level of interactivity then we do now. I don't know when I'll get all the kinks out but it will bare the same name as this story. So if you got a spare few minuites or you want to talk about what you just read hope on over!_

_K, I'm done_

_Curtain Up!_

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**Sokka; Master of the Black Sword**

By: The Jade Knight

Beta and Creative Consultant: Richard Caine

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**-Tournament Saga- **

**Chapter 5**

**-**

The Story of Sokka

Chapter 5: The Forgotten Past

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"Greetings, young man."

I sat up as fast as I could and quickly looked around for danger. There seemed to be no immediate threats, but where the hell was I? I knew that I had fallen asleep in the cave with the others last night after we had supper, but now I was ... _where the bloody hell was I?_ I could see lush grass beneath my feet and as I was barefoot I could feel the cool morning dew upon the individual blades. But that was all I could see, anything beyond about ten feet was completely concealed due to the curtain of blindingly white fog that sat there like a chained guard dog.

"Who's there?" I called; my body tensing. I got no verbal response, but from the depths of the mist the outline of a man appeared and became clearer as he walked towards me. I nervously held my ground, not wanting to appear afraid. Sometimes a victim's fear was the trigger the psychos were waiting for. Good thing I wasn't freaked out in the slightest by all this fog and that disembodied voice. Good Luna, I can't even lie to myself convincingly.

"I come with peaceful intentions, I only wish to talk," came the voice again. This time I listened harder, trying to pick up any defining details in his voice. It was a little gravely, but spoken with a kind tone. I stared into the mist hard as he continued forward, the mist parting slowly letting me see more details.

He was tall, nearly seven feet, but he was built like a miner; broad shoulders packed with well used muscles. He wore a baggy robe that had a very old style cut. The hood that might be pulled up, plunging his face into shadows, lay flat on his back. He slowly approached with his large hands held empty at chest level to prove that he was unarmed and had no intentions of attacking with any bending. He had flaming red hair pulled back out of his bronzed face in a long tail that ran down his back. I would never forget his eyes. They were gold, the color of polished amber, and they seemed to glitter in the twilight fog, and… empty somehow. I couldn't put my finger on it exactly. He smiled as he stopped a short ways away from me and slowly lowered his hands.

"We have been waiting many ages to meet you; the first of the new generation of Shapers," he said, his smile widening. What did he mean by 'Shapers'? I wanted to ask him, but another question won out.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Mouretsu," he said calmly. I frowned and considered; that was an old name with older roots, maybe even pre-Diaspora, when all the nations spoke exactly the same tongue. I had seen it once in the library of that insane curmudgeon of an owl spirit that lived in the desert. I remember the section it was under said something about 'Shapers' too. But the details were escaping me.

"My name is Sokka," I said, but I didn't hold out my hand. There was a certain unnaturalness to this man, like he was more then what I or any other person could ever hope to become. "Do I know you?"

Mouretsu nodded solemnly, "In a way. Many centuries ago I was a great leader of our people."

"Our people? What is that supposed to mean?" I asked, now really confused. I got dropped into this weird place and this guy starts talking about being some kind of leader. "What? Like the chief of the Water Tribe?"

"No." He said kindly, and then he quickly looked behind him like he could hear someone coming toward us. "I am sorry to say that our time is very limited. There are many people who do not want us to talk."

"Who?"

"I do not have much more time Sokka, please let me finish. As I said, long ago I was the leader of a great race, and like any man burdened with power I did my best to use it for the greater good. But our people were wrongfully accused by a very powerful and mislead woman, and because she was the Avatar of that time, few questioned her beliefs."

Mouretsu face looked distant and tired, his eyes focusing on something far away. "We were accused of things… horrible atrocities. We attempted many times to prove our innocence. It was fruitless. A war began, unlike any that has been seen since, and the forces unleashed nearly shattered our world."

I blinked. If this… whoever this was, was right, I should have heard of this; at least tangentially. There would be some record, or a story. I wanted to interrupt, to ask him for more, but he continued his speech in a hurried rush, squinting into the surrounding fog.

"And then the war was over, and our entire race was broken; gone. All our great works left undone, and records of our people dust on the winds," he said, voice trailing into a whisper. Then he turned his eyes on me, and even though he still had a kind smile his eyes seemed utterly empty of any emotion. "But you have the gift; you could resurrect the old ways and once again bring our race back to its old brilliance."

"I don't understand." I said. My head was starting to hurt, this was all coming a little fast; I still didn't even know where I was. Now, a red haired titan of a man was claiming I had to repopulate the world. I suppose I've had worse dreams, when you get down to it. The only damn problem was that this felt far too real to be a dream. Mouretsu turned his blank eyed stare away from me to gaze into the fog again.

"Do not worry Sokka; all will be made clear. Our time is very short, but it is critical that you know that there are those who wish to mislead you," he stated. The grove began to feel colder and emptier as Moretsu made the first genuine expression I'd seen; a look of grim defiance. "One of these deceivers is on her way right now. Whatever you do, do not listen to her. She will lie to distract you, and then lead you to your doom. Our race must survive," Looking back his eyes went wide, blank pupils dilating even further until I could hardly see the color of his eyes. "You must not fail, my son."

Before I could get another word out he turned and ran back into the mist. I followed his trailing footprints, and where his hide boots met the grass a rim of hoarfrost spider-webbed outwards, freezing the stalks in place.

At that point, I admitted to myself that not only did I have no idea what the hell was going on, I was being stalked by something whose bad mood could freeze water. It's nice to know that at least the little things never changed.

"It is good to see you again Destined One."

Brilliant, it's another one. A small shadow moved in the fog, appear and vanishing just as quickly. I took a step back, not sensing danger, but being cautious until I figured out what in the bleeding hell was going on. The sound of the voice was non-localized. It could be anywhere. I closed my eyes and opened my ears. Placing a hand on the hilt of my blade, I called into the white nothingness. "Who are you? I warn you, I'm armed."

The voice moved no closer but a soft address floated to me from the hidden reaches of the fog. "Yes I know Destined One, but you have as little to fear from me now as when we first met." Frowning I thought hard, I knew that voice. I was sure I had heard it before, but where?

The Old Woman! My eyes snapped open as I found the location of the voice.

The shadow moved again and from the blank whiteness directly in front of me the gray cat I had seen after my confusing escapade with the old woman appeared. It was small, clearly fully grown but still easily held in a single hand. It crept slowly toward me, not in fear, but in a sublimely feline arrogance. When it was just a few feet from me it sat back on its haunches and considered me carefully. "I must say that we are very please that you have managed to make your way here so soon."

I stared for what seemed like forever, there was no way I just saw that. I shook my head hard, trying to get it to work properly.

The cat's mouth had moved.

And words had come out.

Words I understood.

And to make things worse as I was trying to desperately make the world make sense the cat shook with barely contained laughter, clearly at my confusion. Okay, that's it, all of the stress of running from the Fire-Nation and trying to deal with Toph had finally caught up with me.

I'd gone insane. Weeeee!

Something of what I was thinking must have shown on my face. "No Destined One, you are not going mad. I am speaking to you in Man's tongue."

"Cats don't talk." I said as firmly as I could; seeing as I was also trying to convince myself.

"That is true Destined One; but I am not a cat."

I looked down at the fluffy little gray creature before me, staring right into its little yellow eyes. "You look like a cat to me."

"Yes, I have taken the form of a feline but I am much more." The cat said slowly as if considering something. "You do not know where you are, do you?"

"No." I admitted.

Without warning the cat got up, I tensed for a moment before the feline slowly started to circle me, not coming any closer. I forced myself to relax a bit. Sure, it was only a talking cat in a place that for all you know doesn't exist past ten feet. Wait, something had been bugging at me since I had got in here.

"What do you see?" asked the cat with a surprisingly patient tone. I knew it said it wasn't a cat but what the hell was I supposed to call it?

I toyed with the idea of lying, that fire in the tent had been scary. What if it was waiting for me to let down my guard so it could attempt to roast me again? But the cat, woman? _It _had not done me any actual harm yet -mental trauma aside- and it had not made any hostile moves. Looking to my instincts I thought I could trust it not to have ill intent; at least, any _obvious_ ill intent.

"I see a little gray _cat_," I said with just enough venom that I hoped the fleabag knew I wanted a better explanation regarding what it was. "About ten feet of green grass around me and a wall of fog-" I stopped short as everything in front of me darkened.

I squinted hard and tried to bring the new shadow into focus. My hand had once again made its way onto the hilt of my sword, my feet spaced in a ready position. This place felt weird as hell and I was more than a little edgy. Slowly I picked out details and started to piece it together. "I also see a large animal in the fog. Sort of like a dog."

"Or a wolf?" asked the cat.

"Yes." I answered, watching as the shadow faded back into the fog. I remembered what she had said about a white wolf the last time we had met, but I didn't see how it was connected. I felt like the wolf had been there watching me and had not expected me to see it. Ha; good. About time someone other than me got weirded out. Keeping an eye on the place the wolf had faded away I released my grip on my sword again. "So, are you going to tell me where I am?"

"How does this place make you feel?" The cat asked, ignoring or dismissing my comment about my location as it completed circled me and sat back down in front of me.

That was a weird question to ask. 'How does this place make me feel?' What was this thing, my psychiatrist? Are we going to talk about my child hood and look at ink blots next? With a sigh I kept my -very witty- comments to myself. "It feels off, like I'm somewhere I'm not supposed to be ... yet." Looking down I saw glee in the eyes of the cat. "And it's kind of familiar, like I've been here before."

"You have," said the cat bluntly.

I frowned. "I think I would remember being trapped in a foggy place with a talking cat who thinks its a shrink."

Again the cat laughed, "No, you were never meant to even have the vaguest feeling that you were ever here. Your memory of this place should never have existed. Yet here we are."

"Why?" I asked, more then a little confused at that last statement.

"Because Destined One, the last time you were here, you were a prisoner being held by an angry forest spirit."

"_What?_" I screamed jumping back from the cat. What the hell did all of that mean? Alive, was she going to try to kill me. And then there's – Wait. Angry forest spirit, it couldn't be that panda bear thing could it?

No way. There was no way in any of the seven hells I was familiar with that this was possible. "Am I in the spirit world?" I asked in a voice barely over a whisper, my voice shaking slightly.

"Yes, Destined One," said the cat in a calming voice. I fell back onto the ground hard as the full effect of what was happening overwhelmed me. For a long time I was silent, trying to absorb what was happening. How was I in the Spirit World? Only Aang was supposed to be able to come here physically. Unless... I tried to fight a question past my paralyzed lips but I couldn't seem to voice my fear. Finally after what seemed like an eternity I worked up the courage.

"Am I dead?" I asked fearfully.

"No, Destined One," I felt my stress collapse inward with a sigh relief. "That is why it is so fantastic that you are here. The only living being to ever pass into the spirit world consciously in the last forty thousand years has been the Avatar."

"But Aang is the bridge between the worlds; I'm just a guy with a sword!" I cried pointing at the sword on my back for completely unnecessary emphasis.

"Yes, you are not a bridge and you never will be. That ability will forever rest with the Avatar. But you are one of the only people in nearly forty millennia to attain the power of the Old Ones, the ones that came before the elemental benders. And one of The Lost's abilities was to be able to project their minds into the Spirit World for short periods."

"So I'm not dead?" I asked, still a little unsure of what was happening.

"No Destined One," said the cat, with that tone in her voice that made me think she was enjoying this more than was healthy for even a prophetic talking hairball. "You are still alive, and you will be returning to your body shortly. But you came here for a reason."

"Why do you keep calling me the Destined One?" I asked still trying to regain my mental footing; the_ bloody Spirit World!_

"Because you have shown that you may be the one destined to resurrect the old ways and to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Avatar as he faces the coming darkness."

I would have laughed if I wasn't in shock. "Aang is the Avatar, and there's no way in hell I'll attain powers sufficient to say I'm shoulder to shoulder with _him_."

"You will have different powers than the Avatar. But they will be of a kind not seen in Man's written history. These abilities will be so different from anything seen today that you will have a great advantage; one that cannot be anticipated by your enemies. But such a power must be wielded by one who is possessed of a pure heart. You must become one who puts all others ahead of their own self, much like the Avatar. If you manage this feat you will tap into a primal power all your own."

"Primal power?" I asked, unable to keep my irritation controlled anymore. "What does that mean, and what do you mean 'like the Avatar'"

I couldn't help myself. Aang was a walking natural disaster _already_, even if he had only mastered a single element and had a shaky grasp on the next two in his cycle. But once he mastered all four he could be able to defeat entire armies with little difficulty; there was no way I could ever contend with that.

"The Avatar is a fist, with enough muscle behind it a fist can shatter stone. However, despite this power, there is a limit to how much force you can place behind a fist before it breaks itself. As the Avatar is a shattering fist, you shall be a piercing dart. A device that, using clever thought and careful movements can shatter the rock with very little actual power. Each is valuable, powerful, and _necessary _in its own way, and both are needed if the world is to be balanced. " The cat stopped for a moment, as if considering what to tell me. "Do you know that the nature of the world is balance? The Yin and Yang?"

"Yes, I've heard that mentioned a few times."

"Do you believe in it?"

"No, not entirely."

"Why?"

"The Avatar." I said simply. "He is the single most powerful being in the world. He has no equal and so there is imbalance."

The cat grinned. Well I didn't really see it grin, it was like I got the feeling it would grin if it could. Wow that sounded mental, even to me.

"Exactly, the Avatar is the only imbalance in the world, correct? The one person, that if influenced by the force of the darkness would be unstoppable, would rule the world indisputably. Do you agree?"

"I guess. But he's the Avatar; he's the force of good in the world. He can't become a dark lord like you're saying."

The cat seemed to grin wider at my choice of 'dark lord'. "The Avatar is human, and that means that he is as corruptible as any of you. He is the greatest power in the world, Destined One. All that power might go to his head."

"Are you saying Aang might go evil?" I asked getting a little pissed off. Aang was a close friend of mine and I would not allow a mangy, fleabitten, cat-god-woman-thing to talk crap about him; even if she could roast me in an instant. I'm nice and smart that way.

"Calm yourself Destined One, I mean no offense. I am simply presenting you with the information that will lead you to one of the greatest secrets of the Old World."

I felt my skepticism return with gale force strength. Greatest secrets of the Old World? I didn't even know there was one; and as Katara would tell anyone who listened, I know an awful lot. Usually more than is good for me? Maybe Fluffy McHairball was just here to mess with my mind. It would be a good way to turn me against Aang. But something was bugging me. If the world was supposed to be balanced, Yin and Yang and all that Jazz, then what is ... Aang's ... Yang.

I froze, a cold chill of fear and realization trickling down my newly re-paralyzed spine. My mouth worked, trying to form words but nothing came out. If what she said was true then that meant – that there was – my god...

"I see you now understand Destined One," said the cat sadly.

"Who was it, how, where?" I asked. My breathing felt coarse, and my entire body was numb. I looked at the cat as I felt my own anger rising. Something must have happened, because when I met her eyes, I wasn't the one to look away; she was. And as the cat turned from me to begin pacing once more, I caught the hint of an expression I'd never seen on a spirit's face before; fear.

"Before the elements bent to the hands of the humans, there was another type of power, a much finer art than the codes of bending. Very few, save for the Old Ones, had the ability to master this power. It was rare and very wild, almost uncontrollable. Unlike the elements it was not a component life, it was _alive,_ having a consciousness of its own. It held the knowledge of eons and granted strengths unlike anything seen today. Then of course, the world found balance like it always did, and the humans discovered the secrets of the elements. For many centuries the two powers lived side by side as yin and yang to one another. Of course there were many disputes over the ages but there was mostly peace between them."

"No one in the living world recalls who appeared first, the Avatar of Man or the Incarna of the Old Ones. That has slipped through the sands of time. But then, as before, the world found balance and there stood two beings. One was to have the unfathomable power of the Avatar state, and the other to master the power of The Void. One was to be forever reincarnated and the other to live the life of a mortal and before entering the afterlife, pass the power to another. But sadly over the ages the Old Ones began to die out. They were too few, too rare, and although nearly immortal, the mass of humanity had long surpassed them in number and influence. The art of bending the elements was so much more predominate, that it seemed the Old Ones would soon be just a memory. But that did not sit well with the last Incarna of the Old Ones. He wished to be remembered; he railed against the injustice that was the extinction of his race."

"So he gathered as many students as he could find and taught them all that he knew, and when they were skilled enough he encouraged them to do the same; to seek out _any_ with the ability and to teach them. He ignored the oldest and most vital tradition of looking into the hearts of those showing promise and seeing if they had the strength of heart and mind to not be swayed by the power they controlled. But many that showed the ability to touch the Void did not have the strength to not be consumed by it. It had always been like that, so few having the power to use the Void for noble purposes. But the Shapers needed the safety of numbers if they wanted to survive the ravages of time, and the Incarna did not have the luxury of eternity on his hands. He was working in an effort to prevent an extinction event. So he toiled, as did his students, and it was through this neglect that the Dark Lord Mouretsu rose to prominence.

"When the weight of ages finally caused the last Incarna to pass into the spirit world and for the power to pass to another it was ensnared and enslaved by Mouretsu. Now with a black heart and possessing the mantle of a demi-god, he decided it was time for the Old Ones to regain their place as the sole powers of the world."

"For nearly fifty years Dark Lord Mouretsu and Avatar Yasuragi fought, one trying to return balance to the world and the other trying to bring chaos. The war raged on for many long years and both sides created weapons and techniques that should never have seen the light of day. The war was long and taxing but in the end, there was a final confrontation between Mouretsu and Yasuragi. As the Imalimen know, only a god can truly face a god. The battle that ensued flattened mountains and boiled lakes, but the two powers were so opposite that the fight was more an explosive wave of destruction than a true battle. It was over in a matter of moments, resulting in the death of Dark Lord Mouretsu, eventual death for Avatar Yasuragi, and the annihilation of the Old One's city-continent. The power of the Incarna passed elsewhere; to one with better intentions but still weak.. After the last few embers of resistance within the ranks of the Old Ones were quashed, peace once again reestablished itself. But the line of the Old Ones was broken beyond repair; they were so few that they were soon extinct."

"But, like it always does the world is trying to bring balance. It has tried many times before now to raise an equal to the Avatar, but it has always failed. But let us hope that you are the one to take that position, shall we?"

I just sat there, absorbing what she had said. There was a power equal to the Avatar, and the two had gone to war long ago. "Why is there no record of this war in the history? If I remember correctly our written history gone back about forty thousand years, and I don't think there's any mention of a war."

"That is because the history of the ten thousand years leading up to that point were destroyed. It was against the Avatar's wishes, but he let every nation make their own decisions and they decided to erase even the name of the Old Ones from history, lest the past repeat itself. You must understand Destined One; even now, the only event in the spirit court's memory that _could possibly_ rival the destruction of that final strike would be Sozen's comet itself."

For a very long time I just sat there, until I realized that I was still sitting on the ground and stood back up. So many questions tore their paths through my head that it felt like I was going to explode. She had mentioned Mouretsu, and she had said that he was an evil war-mongering bastard. But the Mouretsu I had met had been a fearful defeated man who had hopes for the future of his race. Again, my face seemed to have given away my thoughts.

"I assume that Mouretsu has once again gotten his say in before we found you," said the cat bitterly. "Destined One, I know through past experiences that there is nothing that I can say that will convince you that everything he said is a deception. But just bear in mind that it has been due to his influences that even learned men have never heard of the Old Ones. Every new scion with the potential to become the Incarna who has manifested in the last forty thousands years has been consumed by hate and twisted into a weapon aimed at the elemental benders by an age old vendetta."

"I have never heard of any other conflicts like the one's you described." I said not sure if I trusted it anymore; or anyone else in the spirit world for that matter.

"That is because the power has never spread beyond the scions themselves before the Avatar realized what was happening and took action." The cat seemed to think about something for a second. "That must be what he's hoping for. You are so close to the current Avatar that the Dark Lord must be hoping that he will hesitate; just long enough for you to defeat him and reestablish the dominance of the Old Ones."

"I don't know if I believe you." I stated honestly.

"I understand what you are thinking Destined One, but just promise me that you will not be blinded by cold logic; think with your heart."

I considered what Fluffy had said. I was not so great a fool as to promise something when I understood nothing, especially when such promises involved the spirit world.

"Who are you?" I asked, choosing not to voice my thoughts.

The cat gave me a strangely disappointed look and shook its head in a very human fashion. For a few moments the cat seemed to recompose itself before it answered. "My name is Genzou, and I am the keeper of the futures that might be."

"The futures that might be?"

"Yes Destined One." It said, getting its stride back. "When we first met, in the alleyway that existed only in your mind I showed you a great many things. Do you remember?"

"How could I forget? I had a few nightmares about the things you said."

The cat – Genzou nodded and seemed sorry. "Once more will I open the possibilities of the future to you-"

"Uhhh, yeah. Could you maybe leave out the wall of fire that tried to burn me while also scaring the crap out of me?" I asked seriously. Genzou only seemed to smile wider. I'd already come to hate that smile. Some part of me, that was becoming harder and harder to suppress, was telling me to kick the next smiling cat I saw.

"I have no control on what you see or how you see it. I simply open the door to the innumerable possible futures, your mind reaches for the one's it needs. You know this whether or not you are conscious of it."

"Alright." I said, uncertain. If I wanted to scare the pants off myself I would say something sexist to Katara, she could be scary as hell when she was angry. However, Prophecy Cat was running a close second at the moment. I couldn't see even a stab of pity in its oh-so-pokeable eyes. So shut up subconscious, I told myself, and play nice. Maybe I won't be barbecued this time. A moment later I could almost swear I heard an evil little laugh that sounded suspiciously like Toph's. I groaned, this was going to be bad, I just knew it. "Alright, so when does it happen?"

"We will meet again Destined One." Said Genzou a fraction of a second before the wall of fog that had been holding its ground ten feet away suddenly rush forward so fast I cried out and raised my arms. I tried to look around, opening my eyes as wide as they could go, but all I saw was the uniform white that had settled all around me. I called out to Genzou a few times but got no answer. Okay, so mysterious cat-god spirit magic was the game. I'd have played along, if I knew what the hell was supposed to happen.

Without warning Piando-sensei's voice echoed from deep inside the white mist. "Sokka, if you stay on this path I know that one day you will become an even greater master then I am."

Those were some of the last things sensei had said to me before I had left. A tingling sensation started to nag at me, pulling my focus to my sword. Drawing it I looked down at it, trying to figure out what was so important. It seemed the same as always, at least until I turned it over in my hands. As I examined the base of the hilt, I was struck mute. How could I have missed this? I had spent many careful hours sharpening and caring for my blade, but I never noticed that it had the White Lotus symbol on the base. I closed my eyes again and listened through the mists. There was something here… something I needed to see.

"Sokka huh? Nice to meet yah. My name is Arckon, but most people just call me Arc."

The quiet voice was like a roar in the empty mists. Arckon? That was that guy who told Toph all of that performer's wisdom stuff when she was in the Earth Rumble. But I had never met the guy, at least not yet. It was getting colder in here, wherever here was, and the mist was getting darker behind my eyelids. I closed my eyes tighter.

"Sokka, we're all very worried about you ... This isn't you, you're acting crazy!"

Suki? I recognized her voice, and she sounded scared. Who was she scared of, me? The next voice took me a second to recognize; after all it isn't every day that you hear your own voice from outside your body.

"I'm afraid. I know what I have to do, but I'm afraid. I feel like I'm losing myself in the rage."

I felt a shiver creep its way down my spine. Something in the way I -the voice me- said those words really made me feel... frightened.

"I won't be stopped. If you aren't going to help me, then stay out of my way."

My mind was racing a mile a minute. Why would I say something like that? My frustration got the better of me and I opened my eyes in the blank mists and raised my sword up to the invisible sky.

"What is this?" I screamed. "Why am I hearing this? Answer me damn it!"

I waited a second before yelled again. But I knew that I could scream until my throat bled and I still wouldn't get an answer. I was alone here; some distant part of me knew that. Probably the same part of my mind that brought me here, and the same horrible intuition that said that what I was hearing was just the beginning. Something else was coming. The mist darkened to a burnt gray and I knew it would only be a matter of seconds now. I was terrified.

The mist turned to a cloudy midnight and I was left alone in the black with only my own ragged breathing to keep me company. I was waiting for something, what I'm not to sure but it was definitely coming.

A pressure asserted itself from above me and I grunted as I was pushed down. Bracing my legs I managed to keep my footing but being pushed down by an unseen force in total darkness wasn't helping the situation any. Then with a loud crack the pressure lifted and light flooded the world. I almost hissed as the light of street lamps and the moon washed over me. It took a few seconds before my eyes adjusted to the sudden shift in lighting, but very soon I was able to look at my surroundings. It was nighttime. I could see the breeze move through the grasses, but it did not touch me. The dirt beneath my boots did not compress, nor did my hand truly feel the ground when I knelt to touch it. I was a spirit here; a ghost of some kind. I looked up and around, taking everything in that I could.

I had been here before. Only I don't remember the tanks, or the soldiers.

I was standing outside the royal palace of Ba Sing Se. My eyes swept up the huge stone building. It had looked pretty nice the last time I had seen it, even though we had been fighting with the Dai-Li to talk to the Earth King who happened to have no knowledge of a hundred year long war. It had a flight of once perfectly carved stairs leading up to the front doors a hundred feet above me, except the last time I was here the two wooden doors weren't reinforced with iron bracers. The full squad of very twitchy looking Dai-Li agents in front of said reinforced doors was different also. I'd never seen the Dai-Li look scared.

The building had looked beautiful, immaculately clean steps and smiling faces everywhere. But now it bore the Fire-Nation flag on all of the flag posts and banners on all of the unadorned walls. Smoke billowed from the tallest towers and the dancing light of flames flickered from most of the windows. The once clean and sparkling building was covered in soot, its walls badly damaged and its windows barred. It was no longer the palace of a free city. It was an enemy stronghold.

At the foot of the stairs in the burnt remains of what had once been a sprawling and beautiful garden sat four Fire-Nation tanks ready, gunners watching the entryway with unusual alertness. Around the tanks sitting near small fires and dotted by quickly pitched tents were the drowsy forms of fifty or more Fire-Nation soldiers. I felt my guilt close in on me as I looked at the ruins. We had managed to get out of Ba Sing Se just as it fell. We didn't have a choice back then. Aang had nearly been killed, and even if we would have found someone in the city willing to hide us, Aang would have been too weak to fight for weeks. We would have been discovered and executed ages ago. But looking at this, the center of the Fire-Nation occupation, it was all I could do not to draw my sword and attack. I knew this was all just a vision, an illusion, but I still felt the injustice. At the same time, I felt a strange sense of pity as I looked at the sprawling soldiers in the cold evening air. They looked miserable in a way that I could understand. I looked away before the feeling could overtake me completely.

As I did so, thunder boomed and all of the soldiers camping around the tanks scurried to cover any equipment that may be harmed by the rain that was on the way. I watched them with a frown. Something felt wrong about this. I heard a metallic clanking to my left and turned to see two more tanks roll by, closely followed by a further thirty soldiers in Fire-Nation uniforms. Straining my ears I heard the distinct sound of at least one more moving tank unit circling the enormous palace. There were probably more, after all the palace was a big place, there was no way I could hear everything happening around the entire building.

The sky broke open and the rain wept down in large fat drops that you could feel like hammers on your skin. The thirty soldiers that had been following the two new tanks took up positions around the small encampment at the foot of the four stationary tanks, and thirty odd fresh solders stood up and grumbled through the rain after the two moving tanks continuing on their circuit. It seemed like a lot of power placed around the palace. Maybe the bitch queen was more security conscious than I had thought.

It was a lot of men and power placed around here for just a routine guard. They were scared too; both the ones who had been here and the ones who'd arrived. The soldiers tried to look bored as they vainly attempting to keep the small fires going in the rain but their eyes kept scanning the deep shadows at the edges of the light. What were they so afraid of?

A bolt of lightning cut the sky closely followed by the rumbling roar of thunder, and almost everyone in sight jumped. Dismissing the cowards, I walked up the great staircase and looked out over the city. Aside from the occasional pillar of smoke indicating a burning fire it seemed fairly peaceful. At least as peaceful as the last fallen free-city could look. I panned my gaze across the city, to see if there was anything else I was supposed to see in this vision.

I was temporarily blinded by a fork of lightning the moment I turned and had to wait a few seconds for my vision to return. After a few moments the flash started the fade from my eyes. First the buildings came back into focus. Some showed the marks of recent fighting between Earth Kingdom freedom fighters and Fire-Nation soldiers. I felt a flash of pride; as long as the citizens fought Ba Sing Se still lived. There was still hope of saving the city.

As my vision cleared more I realized I was looking down a long lonely street through the tall and once elegant front gates of the palace. The entire left side of the street seemed to have been reduced to burnt-out husks of the great mansions they once were. How many died while those buildings burned? How many stood by and watched?

As I looked through the gap, I realized that I was mistaken before; the street wasn't empty. The red moon was just rising over the dark horizon and it was outlining a single person standing all alone in the middle of the street, slowly walking with hard conviction and iron purpose. As he drew closer I concluded it was a man. He was not too tall, five ten, five eleven. A light build but with the look of a man who had gained some muscle recently. He seemed to be walking a little heavy, yet unnaturally graceful at the same time, like he was carrying a lot of weight but could easily handle it.

He drew closer and another flash of lighting illuminated him, casting ragged shadows. He was wearing a lot of reflective material. The thunder peal boomed as I noticed what he was wearing. He seemed to have a heavy chain mail shirt on beneath a drenched dark leather vest with another few dozen armor plates sewn onto it. His vest had shining steel shoulders jutting out above his arms, both with small lips on the inside to deflect blows away from his neck. The chain mail vest he wore had long sleeves that fell all the way down to his wrists without covering his hands, which were clad in matching armored leather gauntlets, and his lower body was protected by the same dark leather armor and chain mail plus iron capped boots.

I was frozen looking at him. He was well protected, but he was also covered in weapons. Across his chest two black belts crossed, the first housed a dozen or so daggers in black sheaths and the other seemed to be strapping some kind of mechanism to his back. It wasn't a sword sheath like what I had, it was the wrong kind of rigging, and he already had a mismatched pair of blades hanging at his hips. The belt at his waist that held the two swords also held what I recognized as several small round hand-held grenades; what kind I couldn't tell from this distance.

I tried to focus in on him but the distances were too great. I felt like reaching out; something about this was eerily familiar to me. I concentrated, and there was a momentary distortion of my vision. Suddenly I was on the street, standing next to him.

He passed under a street lamp, completely unworried about anyone seeing him as he walked down the center of the street. The rain was falling harder now as the golden light of the gas lamp fell on him and brought his features into sharper focus. His eyes were sharp and focused completely on the soldiers behind me. His hair -shorter than mine- hung wild, held back only by a simple green bandanna tied tight around his forehead. The face beneath it was a mask of fury, agony and seething rage. He looked like a man who was fighting for everything he had, like if he failed his life would be over. His contorted face was painted in blacks and grays in a savage style, giving him the appearance of a mindless berserker. And he – was me.

I gasped raggedly and took a step back. It was me! He was me! What the hell was I doing here dressed like a one man apocalypse? It looked like he was off to take on the entire Fire-Nation. I spun around quickly, to the small army camping at the base of the stronghold. Hells bells, he – I was going to storm the bloody place. It was the vision. I was looking at my own death, one way or another.

Then so suddenly it made me jump a long wolfs howl pierced the dark rainy night. I turned back to the berserker-Sokka and saw the form of a large white animal step out from behind him. It was big, its shoulders coming to about the level of my hips, and covered in thick silver fur that shone in the low light. It revealed rows of dagger like teeth as it pulled back its ears and growled as it followed shoulder to shoulder with my doppelganger. It was a huge beast with sharp and intelligent yellow eyes that glinted dangerously in the night.

In the rainy night I stood awestruck by the sight. But that was nothing compared to when he whirled his face and looked _right at me_. The White Wolf tilted his head back and smiled at me, revealing rows of shark-like teeth. Then it started to fade, I could see the buildings behind it. Within a matter of seconds the beast had completely vanished, leaving not a trace. I continued to stare at the spot it disappeared into for several moments, trying to figure out what happened when my attention was grabbed again. My double closed his eyes and released a shuddering sight. The air around him chilled, creating a frozen wind that even I could feel in my ghostly state.

At the edge of my hearing, I heard the chanting of a million whispered voices; sounds that had no meaning in a human tongue, and echoing sounds that no man could make. His eyes snapped open again, and the volume of the whispers increased. But I hardly noticed.

His eyes, my eyes, had been replaced with an infinite starry expanse. As I stared into the black pools filled with starlight, the whispers grew stronger, echoing in my mind. They sang of lost Yethor, sunken and eons gone. They chanted an ode to the frozen wind of the deep, and they whispered theories of planets, stars, and emptiness. And they sang of rage; a rage so deep that I could feel it thrumming in my bones, even as the aching cold seeped into them. I had never felt so cold, not even back home on the ice. It was a cold I didn't even have a name for. I watched the rain around him freeze in mid-air, and puddles frost over into steel-hard sheets of ice beneath his boots. He smiled at me, _right at me_, a frighteningly empty smile. I felt his rage slithering through the air; freezing everything in its path, peering into the darkest reaches of nightmares and shadows of everything and everyone. Then he called to me; his words echoing as if I perceived them both before and after he spoke.

"I see you," he said in a calm alert voice. Underlying his voice was a harmony of unknowable words. The whispers surged beneath his voice as he spoke, chittering and caressing. When he spoke it was the voice of a scared man, even though he was about to take on a small army. He seemed sure, like he knew what needed to be done; what price needed to be paid.

Behind me, from somewhere in the encampment a shout went up, looking back I saw a few soldiers staring up at my doppelganger. Someone in the back screamed and set the others into motion. Some ran to tear the tarps off of what looked like small artillery pieces as others picked up weapons and turned to face the new enemy. Most of the solders seemed to be Firebenders judging from the fact that only a handful of them had drawn blades.

The unearthly trance broken for an instant, I looked back at the other me to see him draw his black sword and unclip one of the grenades from his waist. With a flick of his finger he ground the tip of the fuse between his fingers and the chemicals reacted, igniting the fuse. The fuse smoked in the frozen air as the doppelganger continued forward at the same pace he had previously.

In the encampment someone managed to get to the alarm and an endless rising and falling wail cut the panic. With utter silence my doppelganger threw the grenade and it flew like it was a rocket, disappearing into the encampment. I tried to strain my eyes to see what was happening, but the darkness that had brought me here was returning.

"No, wait, I need to know more!" I bellowed into the nothingness.

"Remember this Destined One; power can corrupt the most noble of us, you are no exception." Genzou said from somewhere in the black. "Follow your heart."

-

When I awoke I was shaking and drenched in sweat. I would love to have said I learn some lesson, shrugged it off and went on with my morning. But for half an hour I just sat there and shook. How the hell was I supposed to stop this terrible thing from happening if I couldn't even cope with seeing it in a vision? And what the hell was I going to do about Mouretsu? Was _that_ because of him or the fur-ball who was worse than cactus juice? I wasn't worried about myself so much; sure I had looked pretty messed up in that vision, but what I was so worried about was what _made_ me that way. Looking inward I though of only one thing that would make me do something like that; one thing that would make everyone else's lives forfeit ... even my own. My gaze wandered over the others, sleeping, peaceful.

I would not lose them. I would sooner fight the entire Fire-Nation than let any of them get hurt; they were part of my family. Yes I still had my Dad, but he was far away, and aside from him all I had in the world was sleeping in this dark cave: my sister, my best friend and ... Toph. They were my family in every way that mattered and like hell would I let anything happen to them.

The sun was just starting to come up on a new day, chasing away the cold empty gaze of the stars and taking the edge off of the memory of the vision. Had I really been in the spirit world? And what was this new power that I was supposed to have? I sighed; I decided that asking myself questions I had no answers to was pointless. So I only questioned myself for another ten minutes before I gave up.

I grabbed the flint and the cooking rack from Appa's saddle and grabbed some eggs and bacon from the food store. Then I walked to the mouth of the cave where we usually kept the fire. I built a fire using the logs we had collected yesterday and waited a little while for it to be hot enough. Soon enough I got lost in the ritual that was breakfast and before long I heard stirring from behind me.

I was just taking the last of the bacon out of the pan when Toph wandered over sleepily and dropped down across from me. She yawned widely and stretched. Looking up I felt a little twinge in my stomach. She looked really pretty with her hair all bed messed and her eyes half-lidded in drowsiness.

"We got some bacon today." I said offhandedly. We moved around so much all we could carry was dried meat most of the time, or whatever I hunted down. It was a rarity when we had a fresh professional cut of meat to eat; although Aang wouldn't touch it. Bloody vegetarian, he can _have_ the damned dandelions. Toph grumbled some response before taking a plate form the little stack I had gone to get a minute ago and loaded up with a few strips of bacon as I dropped the first egg into the pan.

"What smells good?" asked my sister as she took up a place to my left. "Oh, eggs. Wait, what are you cooking for? You never want to cook. Are you feeling okay?"

I grinned. Katara could be so protective sometimes. "No, I'm fine. Just got up early and decided I wanted some bacon." She frowned at me a moment longer knowing I was hiding something. I've never been a good liar, and keeping all of what I'd seen to myself from affecting me would be impossible; but she eventually let it go and got her own plate going. "Hey Aang, you up yet?" I called over my shoulder.

"No." Aang growled from the other side of Appa's great bulk.

"Come on, food." I called back as I tipped the first egg onto Toph's plate and the second onto Katara's before cracking open another two for myself.

"I smell the meat, but that ain't food."

"Well I'm sure we got some weeds growing around here you could eat." I replied. Toph snorted with laughter and Katara gave me a look that said that wasn't nice, even though she was smiling too. A bit later Aang joined us, sitting on my right carrying some kind of green crap in a bowl he got from our supplies. For a time we all sat there, just eating. Later we talked about when we would get going again, and where. It was a nice peaceful morning spent with family. I was happy.

* * *

**Jade Knight**

**Richard Caine**


	6. Archive

_Discaimer: I don't own crap... Richard how about you? ... 'I also own crap' Says Richard._

**The Forum is now active.**_ Feel you need to talk about what you just read in 'Black Sword'? Well bounce on over to the forum and talk about it with your fellow reads, not to mention your two handsome hosts! (Ha, say that five times fast)_

_-_

_**Co-AN:** In this chapter me and Richard switched seats. This chapter was brought from concept to you almost completely by Richard himself, I'm just uploading it. This should shed some more light for those of you who felt a little in the dark about what was going on in the last chapter._

_p.s. And before I forget a few of you have been asking how long we think the story will be, well lets put it this way; both me and Richard have fondly called this story 'The Beast' a few times. Does that answer your questions?_

_-_

_**AN:** Now, we present the parallel story line. As some of you've guessed, the world is a little… larger than most people think; and quite a bit darker. Many reviewers commented that Prophecy Furball was actually wrong about the spirit travelers. Good catch, by the way, to those of you who noticed. Furball (as I call her) was indeed incorrect, as you'll see below. I like to remember that even prophets and wise men can be ignorant. Kind of makes you wonder what else Furball was wrong about._

_Doesn't it?_

_-Richard 'The Old Man of Avatar Fan-fiction' Caine_

_-_

_Ready Richard? Good_

_Curtain Up!_

* * *

**Sokka; Master of the Black Sword**

By Richard Caine

Creative Consultant: The Jade Knight

* * *

**-Tournament Saga- **

**Chapter 6**

**-**

The Story of Mai

Part 6: Archive

**-**

_My name is Mai Jai Xiao. I am an assassin of the Gel-Hassad. I have been called many things in my life: killer, lover, demon, and angel, but the truth is, I'm none of these things and all of them. This is the story of a young woman, the ancient will of long-dead Gods, an unlikely messiah, the price of secrets, and most importantly of all a clouded heart._

_This is my story._

_-_

**-**

I've watched the stars my entire life. It's funny, because I've hated them and loved them both alternately and at once. I used to wish that the angels of my dreams would swoop down and rescue me from the life I led. That they would take me to a place where I was the normal girl, a place where I could be myself without having to hide. But I gave that up long ago. I suppose it isn't in my nature to hold onto dreams; if you are burned once, I guess it makes you a little fire-shy. Now I suppose I accept my place in the scheme of things; the place that my mother made for me. But every once in a while, I will look up at the stars, remember that shy little girl, and I rail against it; because no matter how hard I try, it always brings back the hope. And I hate that. My friends would probably be surprised that I hated or loved anything, but I suppose that I don't do a very good job of expressing what I'm thinking.

It's kept me alive so far.

"So what are you going to do tonight?" Ty Lee asked with a brilliant smile. I lifted an eyebrow as I turned towards her and away from the evening sky of the Capital docks. Zuko and Azula had gone ahead. I think it was to see to something before meeting with their father. Zuko hadn't been very forthcoming, and Azula had been conspicuously absent. The two of us walked past a pair of guards to get into a sedan that would carry us up to the peak of the caldera. I settled into the cushions opposite Ty Lee, who was sitting in some impossibly flexible position, stretching her left leg up next to her face.

"What do you think I'm going to do tonight?" I asked. My nearly monotone voice conveyed my irritation well enough. "Go home and go to bed. We're _finally_ free of those Kyoshi outfits and I can sleep in my own bed for the first time in months. I intend to enjoy it. Alone."

"It's just like you to be all alone," Ty Lee huffed. Then she gave me a sly look. "What about getting in touch with your old… friend?"

Even without her sing-song obviousness, it would have been difficult for me to completely restrain the small blush that colored my cheeks.

"What about it?" I asked flatly.

"Oh, come on," she shot back playfully. "I mean, look at the opportunity. A young prince… all alone and broody. Just like you. I mean you two could get together and have moping parties! It would be sooo cute!"

I nobly resisted the urge to skewer my second oldest friend.

"Thanks," I said. "That was just what I wanted to hear from you; such words of encouragement. Besides, he's busy tonight. He's got to see our Lord and you know it. I just want to relax, Ty Lee, and you know it."

"I do," she said with a sage nod and a serious face. Then she cracked a smile so wide she squinted. "But I also know that teasing you is fun. You do this cute little blushy thing when I do."

I did not.

That, however, was incidental to the truth. The truth was that I hardly knew him anymore. It was strange for me. One minute we could be closer than we ever were when I was dumping mud pies in his hair, or pushing him into fountains. The next minute it was as if the time from his banishment was an impassable chasm. I simply couldn't see what he was thinking anymore. His life, both our lives, had been so changed by those years that I hardly knew what to do with him. I didn't like that. I liked to think that there were still a few sparks there that hadn't faded, but sometimes I wondered if I was kidding myself.

"Look, I don't want to argue," I said, in a vain attempt to change the subject. "Let's just go home and relax for once."

Wonder of wonders, Ty Lee shut up. We spent the rest of the ride in a blissful silence. Ty Lee dismounted at her family's compound a little hesitantly, and I was carried the rest of the way to my family's estate, just outside the Royal Grounds.

I was expecting an empty house, in all honesty. My parents were away in New Ozai or Omashu. I didn't really care for either name. The servants had no doubt been warned of my approach, but they would stay out of my way if I wanted them to. They knew my moods by this point.

As I ascended the stairs up to the main door, the footman opened the door and stepped aside for me. I breezed into the house only to stop short. My mother, in all her court finery, was standing just inside the entryway. Joy.

"Mother," I managed.

"Daughter," she returned. "It's good to see you."

I bowed politely to hide my grimace.

"You are no doubt wondering at my return. Your father decided to remain in New Ozai to cement our presence there. It is a great honor, but we felt it too dangerous to allow your brother to remain in the city. Thus, he and I have returned."

She wasn't telling the truth; or at least she wasn't telling all of it. I remembered to bow, perfectly executed as my tutors had taught me.

"As you wish, mother," I said. "May I retire? I'm tired after such a long journey."

"Very well," she said. I couldn't see her face, but I could hear something in her voice I didn't like. "We shall speak of your… adventures in the morning."

Crap. Well, at least I'd get a good night's sleep first. I rose from my bow and left the entryway as fast as propriety would allow. Once I was out of sight, I returned to my normal long stride. Fire Nation etiquette stated that long strides were indecent for a woman. That thought only made me want move even more freely; Fire Nation etiquette be damned.

I crossed an inner courtyard at almost a full sprint, and closed the doors to my wing behind me. The servants knew that if they bothered me now, they would likely be in for an extremely bad night. I'm touchy when it comes to my privacy; but at least I have my reasons.

My wing was separated into a mansion within a mansion. It was self contained, with dining rooms, kitchens, and even staff quarters. Not that I allowed the staff to stay here any longer than necessary to maintain it. There were only two areas that were sacrosanct; places that were truly private. The first was my bedroom. It was set aside from my dressing room, beyond thick double doors. I had commissioned a very specific and unusual lock for my door, one that was difficult to open without a pair of unusual keys. Everyone knew about my bedroom paranoia within the household, and there was probably rampant speculation on the matter. That was fine with me; let them natter on about my bedroom. It kept them from thinking that I had any other place of privacy, and that was convenient. I was heading towards my real sanctum now instead.

I crossed through the formal dining room and ducked into a side passage. Walking up to an unusually surreal looking portrait, I splayed my right hand and pressed specific points on the canvas. My freakishly long fingers came in handy for that. I didn't know anyone else who had the range to trip all of the points at once with just their own hand; except for my mother of course.

I stepped back from the alcove, and it swung aside, revealing a stone staircase that descended down beneath the house. Looking over my shoulder to be certain I hadn't been followed by a busybody, I ducked into the passage and allowed the door to close. I slumped against the cool stone wall in the darkness that followed and let out a deep breath. The hallway was pitch black, but that didn't bother me the same way it bothered most people. I allowed the sclera that covered my eyes to retract, and the passageway became as brighter, the heat signatures showing the slight temperature difference between the air and the wall. It would be dim light by most standards, but it was enough for me.

I followed the winding passage until it emptied out into an arching dome that wasn't on any of the house's layouts or in the records of the city planners. I was proud of that; I'd done it myself. The workers who'd built this room had been selected from the engineer corps of the Third Dragon, and now they were dispersed to the four directions, likely many of them dead from the war. The payments had been cash, and the only intermediaries had retired just last year. I was more or less home free. I just had to be careful.

I walked to the center of the room and sat down on the small bench that sat facing to the west. I closed my eyes and let out long sigh. It had been far too long since I'd had a chance to be here by myself, and the strain of my seeming had begun to wear me out. I had been out in the world a lot lately. It did wonders for my boredom, but it certainly didn't do my overstretched muscles any good.

I carefully stripped off the majority of my clothing, leaving on only my chest wrap and silk pants. The blasted stuff caught on everything, even if it did offer me a place to hide the tools of my trade. When I was down to the barest off necessities, I took a seat in a cross legged position on the central bench.

Sitting there, I breathed deeply and let go, allowing my thoughts to flow outward like my breath. All my desires and aches faded away one by one until I was suspended in the Void, my perception as clear as I could make it. From the emptiness, I carefully focused my thoughts on my body, working from the tips of my toes to all the way up to the crown of my head. At each stop I commanded muscles to relax and joints to realign properly.

A pleasant sensation overtook me as I finished. It was hard to work out your own muscle knots this way, but better that than being touched by someone. Just the thought of it made my concentration flicker for a moment. I hated most touching; it made my skin crawl.

Releasing my thoughts once more, I sought the calm of the Void again. I almost reveled in the emptiness, letting my cares and fears go. Slowly I opened my eyes, and stood up. The truest Void states are hard to describe. They are akin to a complete and utter focus, but they focus on nothing specific at all. Rather, it was almost as if the essence of the world flowed in and through you. Distantly, your mind would categorize and sort through the information presented by your senses. In the true Void state, there was no difference between computation and action; no hesitation between perception and motion. I certainly couldn't boast that; but every once in awhile I came close. Tonight seemed to be one of those nights.

I uncurled from my position and stood. I strapped my dart quiver to one arm, and my blades to another. I slid a pair of stilettos out of the belt I slung low over my hips. Slowly, at first, then with growing speed, I worked through my close range katas. Most people who have seen me work comment that I should hardly need any kind of close in abilities, but the wise understood. My friends, even Zuko, could understand this. Most of the time, the thrown weapon was not a killing strike. A clever opponent could always move, just a little, to turn a fatal strike into only a crippling blow.

No, the true Master of the thrown arts was a total range combatant. She understood that precision was to be admired and cultivated; but dead is dead. Against a skilled opponent, you might be able to injure or disable them at range, but the finishing blow would likely come from your own hands and personal blades. That was the way of things.

I flowed now, faster and faster, until I was spinning and twisting like a Sandbender dervish. My mind processed the input from my senses more quickly than I could truly be aware of. At the time I couldn't linger on it, for to do so would be to break the state of emptiness. I had not moved this well in a long time. Not since my little brother had been kidnapped. Free of my seeming, I could move as I wished, and my body thanked me for it. I had just finished my final kata of the series when my mind finally reached the most perfected state I could manage.

I knew when I had reached it, because in the fullest emptiness, there were the Whispers. I could hear them within my head, a chorus of a thousand voices overlaying one another. Some of my teachers claimed the Whispers offered prophecy and insight; that they knew the comings and goings of all things in all times. Others claimed that they were lies and distractions from the path of Knowledge.

I'd never found them that useful one way or another. Mostly they were a kind of subconscious guidance for me; a whispered 'duck' here or 'strike' there, and occasionally a 'keep your mouth shut'. Tonight, the Whispers felt louder than I had ever heard them before. I closed my eyes and let the voices flow over me. They were uncannily focused tonight. My heartbeat slowed as I listened. There was a single phrase that the whispers seemed to be repeating.

"Yoth ven-ia shavaas ta il," I whispered along. I felt a chill run down my spines. If the Whispers were right… this could change everything; and not in a good way.

"Lo, the Incarna walks," I repeated in the human tongue. I frowned for a moment, but released my expression, allowing my face to relax.

"Show me," I requested, softly to keep from breaking the trance.

The emptiness in my mind was filled with vistas of deserts, the stars twinkling in the cold air. The sky moved around me, showing constellation after constellation moving through in a great sequence, years flashing by in an instant. Finally, the spinning and rotating sky ground to a halt. At the crest of a nearby dune, a strange man was silhouetted, looking up into the sky as the full moon crossed through the constellations of The Wanderer and The Black King in sequence. I could not see his face, for he was backlit by the stars, but when he turned to look at me, I saw ghostly pinpricks of light where his eyes would be. The stars were in his gaze... all of them. I tried to look away, but could not move until he looked away from me and returned to gazing at the moon. The dust and sand swirled around his feet, and I heard a single word carried on the wind; the Whispers chorused in unison. It was the only time I'd ever heard them do so.

"Incarna."

I had the extremely uncomfortable sensation that the Moon knew that I was there, and that I was _not_ welcome here. Its glow shifted from brilliant white to a harvest red, just slowly enough that I almost didn't notice it. However, the shifting light cast the sandy dunes in a hellish orange light. The night air was cold like steel and the stars barely twinkled at all. They seemed harder and more solid than I'd ever seen them before.

The scene shifted again, and the moon backtracked itself through the sky locking into position at the Wayfarer. 40 days, I thought. It will take 40 days from now for this to happen. The Whispers echoed around me.

"It comes."

I came back to myself with a spasm. I found myself staring at the stars. The moon had just passed through the Wanderer far above, and my hands rested against the cool stone of a balcony. There weren't any stars in the basement. There wasn't a balcony either.

I panicked for a moment desperately looking down, but my seeming was back. My skin was smooth to the touch, and pale in the moonlight. Other than the fact that I was in my decidedly undignified undergarments, I was fine. I cursed and looked around.

I stood in my mother's observatory at the pinnacle of our Capital Estate. I didn't know really why (or even how) I came to be there, but I could feel something in the air tonight. It was something that hadn't been there before. A surge of panic coursed through me, but I fought it down. Maybe it was just the crazy that came with listening to the Whispers for too long. Not that that particular alternative was much better.

"You felt it too."

That voice removed the second possibility then. _She _never listened to the Whispers. I turned completely around to see my mother on the other side of the circular tower, facing outward. I knew in an instant that when I found my mother standing at the edge of the observatory's balcony, staring up into the banded constellation of the galaxy, it wasn't just whimsy that brought me here.

"It is a beautiful night, Mai, isn't it?" she asked, with an inclination of her head. I nodded, but kept my own counsel. Even though she could not see me, my mother must have heard the gesture. Nothing that pulled to the both of us like this was ever the product of a beautiful night. My mother, likely taking my silence for at least acquiescence, continued to speak.

"I have been consulting the charts ever since your little brother was taken," she said. Her tone was casual, but I felt the danger lurking there. She seemed to be expecting some response.

"What did the horoscopes tell you, mother?" I asked as blandly as I could.

"Something they never have before," she replied with an airy wave. She turned her neck sharply towards me in a sudden gesture. In a normal person, it probably would have sprained their neck, if not broken it. In this case, she rotated her neck all the way around to face me, a full one hundred and eighty degrees of motion. I found myself staring into my mother's eyes; her true eyes. The cross shaped pupils glinted in the starlight, and I tried very hard to suppress the shudder I always felt when she looked at me like that. I felt my own sclera moving aside, and the world was bathed in the eerie half light that our 'gift' gave us.

"The stars say that the Incarna is returning."

"I'll believe it when I see it."

I paled, realizing too late that not only had I'd blurted out what I was thinking, but that I wasn't nearly as sure as I sounded. I'd spent too much time with Ty Lee lately; maybe fatally too much time. But strangely, my mother, who was usually so strict about such things, just shrugged.

"I understand the sentiment," she said. She readjusted herself so that the front of her body was facing me. "Perhaps it's time that we looked for ourselves. The Archive will likely have what we need."

"I hate the Archive," I said bluntly. My mother blinked her secondary eyelids.

"I do not care what you 'like' or 'hate'," she said in an arch tone, and I suddenly felt five again. "It may have what we need. Besides, how else do you propose we figure out what is sending out the call? Ask the others?"

It was a nonsense question, of course. The closest Elder was holed up in a town three islands over. I released a sigh and nodded. "Fine then. You want me to go?"

My mother snorted and gave an affirmative nod. I watched her hold out her hand to me, and I could see the sense-tendrils move beneath her pale skin of her forearm like eels whipping back and forth. I did the only thing I could. I crossed the distance between us and grabbed her arm. I felt the tendrils break through her skin and pierce me.

God, I hated this part.

I felt my spirit tear itself free from my body with a snap. Instantly I was elsewhere. I stood in the Archive, spirit form propelled there by my mother's assistance. I don't know exactly how to describe the Archive. It wasn't really a place, as far as anyone of the Gel-Hassad I'd ever talked to knew. It was more of a communal image; a mental construction that reached through time. Yet it was so real that you could reach out and touch the stones around you, feel the drip of water and the movement of the air.

Its origin dated back to a supposed better day, when the Old Ones had walked among men. I had my doubts on that count, but I'd never voiced them to my mother or any of the others. They had a kind of blind faith that I lacked in any form. Still, a story was _probably _better than no story at all. Besides, they were family and family was allowed its quirks. Only the Archive itself would likely know why any of them put up with me, for example.

The inside of the Archive was dark and curved in an organic fashion. It looked much more like the handiwork of a sadistic breed of giant black resin extruding wasps than the stone that it was carved from. The walls curved away in the warm darkness, covered with veins that seemed to pulse in the damp heat. There was a musk here that assaulted the nose. It was a scent that almost no one not of the blood could stand. It turned out that some of us extruded it when frightened, as I'd found out when I'd surprised my mother one day, but I suppose I had enough blood to counteract the dizzying effect of the pheromones. My spirit walked down the bone shaped corridors, listening. The Whispers were quiet now. Normally they were almost clamorous here, the place where they were closer to the world of Men. Now I could feel the silence like a weight on my shoulders. It was the quiet of being ignored for something of greater importance, and it was a sensation I knew well. Something, or someone, must have gained their attention. It was the first time I'd ever heard of that happening.

The sinking feeling in my stomach was growing. I picked up my pace to reach the central core before the vision faded. I knew that my time in this corner of the Spirit World was limited. None of us, not even teams working together, could stay here for long. This was especially true if we didn't have the aid of the Whispers. The many irregular corridors of the Archive converged on a single hub, like the spokes of a giant wheel. Each tunnel emptied into the massive domed structure, bigger than anything men had built in recorded history. But, then again, men hadn't built this either; the Old Ones had. I paused at the doorway, drawing the signs of acceptance in the air with my hands. There was no physical challenge, but a subtle pressure eased off of me and I could pass through the arch into the dome itself.

The bony ribbed floor sloped downwards in a gentle fashion to stop at a perfectly circular and mirror smooth pool in the very center. The diffuse pale blue lighting of the Archive cast shadows on the pool. The pool itself _was_ the Archive in a sense. It was the place where memory and perception were stored among the People. It was the source of the living library that stretched through time and space, separate from it all.

My mother had told me stories of those who had encountered long lost relatives in the Archive, ancestors, or distant descendents. The laws of temporal paradox held no sway in this place. The future was not hidden here; it was laid out. It was the ultimate storage device, and likely the best library in the world, perhaps even greater than the fabled library of Wan Shi Tong. I had it on pretty good authority he was the only one who even came close.

The only problem with the Archive was that if you didn't know where you were looking and when you were looking, you could be buried beneath the weight of the information it possessed. It had swallowed up the souls of people stronger than me who'd asked the wrong kind of question.

I crossed the half mile radius to the pool and knelt down gently beside it. I took my hand and closed my eyes in concentration. This was the part that, as Ty Lee put it, 'sucked'. I felt a ripple of agony as my flesh and mind transformed themselves into their natural form quickly instead of the slow relaxation of earlier. This was the Mai that not even Azula had seen; the Mai that probably no one else would ever see if I could help it.

You see, my mother's side of the family had a very distinct set of hereditary quirks, passed down for longer than any of the Four Nations' histories could record. My mother's oral tradition stated that we Gel-Hassad dated back to the twilight of the Old Ones. It was said that in the time before history, the Old Ones were the masters of this world. But the world changed; it left them behind. Even though they were nearly immortal, they reproduced extremely slowly, and humans simply out-bred them. The final straw came when the humans discovered the arts of bending. When they realized that their time was fading, some took steps to ensure a means of survival or a weapon to use against the human horde. The ballads claim that we were their enlightened servants, blessed with gifts granted by divine patrons. I figure things were a bit more complicated. It was probably far more likely that we were a product of miscegenation; the misbegotten children of dying gods. Maybe we were a breeding project to extend their lines, maybe just a slave race. In truth, I figured I'd never really know.

Wherever we came from, we must have had some peaceful time, but that was shattered by the Great War. Our records didn't show who struck first, us or the Benders. But we did know who struck last. The Avatar and her minions sank our continent home of Yegoth in a single night of destruction. It left a gaping hole between the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom that remains an oceanic dead zone to this day. Only fools or brave men crossed directly through the Center Sea. There were… things that were set free that night; things that could sink a warship just as easily as a dinghy.

Just like that, a race that would have perhaps been competition for humanity was reduced to near extinction in a single day. For over forty thousand years my people had been trying to claw their way back from the brink. Their successes were probably dubious at best. We could hide as humans; we could (and did) breed with them, and for the most part we bred true. But it limited us, and it was damn painful to keep up the seeming. For thousands of years, the humans remembered us as demons and killed us when they could. Yegoth's destruction hurt them too, and not in a small way.

It took five thousand years of careful hiding and planning to reduce us to the state of legends and bogeymen. Now, though, the Elders thought we were almost home free. With the Avatar out of the picture, they had been able to use a proud man's ambition to steer the Fire Nation into wiping out the Air Nomads. The most extensive records of our existence were wiped out during the Comet, which our astrologers predicted, and which our agents, such as my grandfather, brought to the attention of the Fire Lord.

It must have felt good to turn our one-time oppressors against one another in the orgy of destruction that followed. Grandfather always spoke of it with pride; the insufferable old coot. And if a few hundred thousand humans died in the ensuing wars, well that was acceptable to them. I knew because I'd seen it in the Archive.

Now, I'm not a moralist. If the Fire Nation was stupid enough to take the bait, they deserved what they got. The stupid bending bastards had been grinding their numbers down for a hundred years. Maybe one day there'd be so few of them that we could rise up and takeover the world. That was what the Elder's hoped.

Whatever; I never believed in the pipe dreams of time-addled old men. I'd believe our 'uprising' when I saw it. It would never happen until the bloated corpse of the Fire Nation had clogged and destroyed the other nations utterly. Sure, it seemed close now. But I knew better than to bet on that. Hope was for idiots and dreamers.

I opened my eyes and looked down into my reflection in the mirror pool; seeing myself as I truly was without any disguises. Blood red eyes with cross shaped pupils stared back at me. My skin had darkened, and hardened to a leathery texture. Instead of long nails, I had yellowed razor talons. From my back, the interlocking and delicate stabilizing fins unsheathed themselves. The subtle plates of my exoskeleton ground against one another, springing up from beneath my skin, and my hair had changed, whipping unbound about my head like the snakes of a medusa. The only way I could describe it was that it was as if an islander's dreadlocks had suddenly been transformed into predatory snake tails. I could feel the tendrils testing the air around me, feeling with senses that purebred humans didn't have a name for. I suppose I could use the names the Old Ones gave us for them, but I really couldn't have cared less. To me, it was just a reminder of how important it was to keep hidden, play the nobleman's daughter; and I hated that kind of reminder.

There were upsides to the transformation, of course. I was harder to injure with my exoskeleton exposed, and I could move faster. My joints were free from the strain of concealing my nature, which meant I was more graceful. The lines of my face and figure were preserved and enhanced, even. The features of our lineage were geometrically perfected, and our bodies beautiful and eerie in their cross of human and inhuman.

The downside was that I looked like an ideal nude debutante crossed with a half breed komodo-rhino/insect. I turned away from my reflection quickly, trying to put the strangeness of my own face out of my mind. Instead, I closed my eyes and reveled for just a moment in the complete freedom of motion that I enjoyed in my natural state. It was the only thing about this form I liked, but it was almost worth it.

Then it was back to business. I sat before the pool with my legs curled into a full lotus position. I cleared my mind, one piece at a time, until all that remained in front of me was a single symbol; the Old One's symbol for their savior and warrior; the one who fought the Avatar and lost all those years ago. They called it the Incarna. I had no trouble retrieving the glyph from my mind. I remembered this particular symbol even more clearly than the flag of the Fire Nation. Exhaling slowly, I leaned forward to place my hands onto the surface of the pool. The cold sensation of the stored memories arced into my mind.

A thousand images assailed me, unlike anything else I'd tried to retrieve from the Archive. Usually, the experience was like the trickle of a fountain, images sliding smoothly past until I decided to seize upon one. This time it was as if I had been assaulted by a team of waterbenders on the full moon. My mind was nearly washed away in a tide of information; too much for any person to handle. I flung about desperately, trying to fight my way out of the current. Somehow, in the maelstrom of thoughts and contrary images, I seized upon something familiar and dragged myself out, inch by bloody inch.

I was literally blown through the layers of reality, away from the Archive. I snapped back into my body, standing across from my mother in the observatory. The force was so powerful that I actually broke contact with my mother's arm. Her own sense tendrils retracted into her forearm just quickly enough to not get torn completely out of her arm as I was flung across the room and into a marble pillar.

The impact hurt, but my body was built for punishment. I pushed up on the floor, trying to get into a sitting position. I could already feel my body reverting, but I was too shocked to even notice the stinging pain as I transformed back to my human shape out of habit. Mother looked at me with the first true expression of surprise I'd seen her have in a very long time. I pulled myself up as the sclera closed over my eyes, leaving me perfectly normal looking again.

"Did you see anything?" she asked in a concerned voice. "Did you get an image of the Incarna?"

"Yes. Maybe? But it's not what you're thinking" I shook my head. It was all I could do not to laugh hysterically or start crying. I hadn't retrieved the prophetic charts or the convergence of information on the subject. In my flailing for something familiar, my mind had closed on an image; an image that I was now trying to sort through as quickly as I could. Him. Of all the damned fools on a planet of damned fools, it had to be him. It fit with the man in my vision too well; a young man, but strong and powerful in his youth. I looked up at my mother; from the confused look she gave me I doubt much of my emotional turmoil made it through to my face. Besides, due to my physiology, it actually hurt to make most facial expressions.

"I think I saw a potential candidate," I said. I was still out of breath, and my voice came out raspier than usual. "The one you looked for, possibly the one whose presence you scryed. The Whispers told me. He travels with the Avatar."

"He hunts him?" Mother asked, not understanding. The thought was probably too strange for her to understand. I shook my head again.

"No, Mother," I said, and this time I allowed myself a small sarcastic smile. "I've actually met him. He was in New Ozai when Tom-Tom was captured. He might as well be the Avatar's valet; and he certainly showed no aptitude as a warrior king at the time."

Even as I spoke, I realized it wasn't entirely true. I'd actually watched him avoid three of Ty Lee's strikes in the throne room of the Earth King without trying terribly hard; something I had only done a few times myself. Sure, he looked like an idiot doing it, but I couldn't discount the accomplishment. Then there had been the fact that I _hadn't_ been able to hit him in New Ozai. Maybe there was something there after all. The thoughts faded when my eyes took in the look of shock that covered my mother's face.

The expression of sheer disbelief cheered me up. That boomerang hurling idiot was apparently supposed to be the messiah of my long suffering people. I felt that my cynicism was beautifully justified in that moment, a shining crystal of truth that in a mad world, only the disdainful have a chance at sanity. It was at this point, with the foreign and painful feeling of a happy smile plastered on my face, I allowed myself to faint.

* * *

**Richard Caine **

**The Jade Knight**

(Check out the Forum)


	7. Solaris et Lunarsa

_Disclaimer: We own nothing except the original content... Caine what are you doing with a monkey? ... No you can't keep it... I said no... my penguin has nothing to do with this._

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AN: We're continuing this line for now, mostly because I got ahead of my esteemed colleague due to bouts of insanity, sleep deprivation, and a general lack of common sense. That being said, take heart. More Tokka goodness is on the way. We swear. For now, enjoy some Maiko fluff, dreams of matricide, and a little bit of good old mayhem. Includes your daily requirement of angst too! Just what a growing mind needs! 

-Caine

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Co-AN: Knight here. Yeah, my newest Sokka chapter was encountering some troubles and going a little slow and since Richard had his next bit ready to go we decided to roll with it. The Sokka chapters continue in chapter eight... you have my word.

-Man in the Jade armor

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_-One last thing. I'm still a new user of the forums and i have no idea on how to make Moderators... can someone help me out?_

_Curtain Up!_

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**Sokka; Master of the Black Sword**

By: Richard Caine

Creative Consultant: The Jade Knight

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**-Tournament Saga- **

**Chapter 7**

**-**

The Story of Mai

Chapter 2: Solaris et Lunarsa

**-**

I woke up moving from prone to bolt upright in a single motion. I glanced around quickly, trying to get my bearings. When I saw that I was in my own bed, I began to relax a little bit. Mother must have had the servants move me here after my little 'fainting spell'. God, what they must have thought when they found me wearing nearly nothing in the observatory on a cold night, I couldn't say. I was still dressed in the clothing from the previous night; or lack of clothing. I tried to clear my fuzzy feeling head with a slow shake, but that only made the world start to spin crazily. I cursed in a manner that Azula would have approved of and Ty Lee would have been scandalized by. The feedback was worse than I was hoping for.

Projection into the spirit world always took a toll on the user, no matter how good you were. If you were smart, it wasn't so bad. You just felt like you had cotton-balls in your brain for the next day or so. However, if you screwed up, you could end up bedridden for weeks. The only consolation I had was that my mother was having the same trouble; share the task, share the burden and all that. It was almost enough to make me feel better. That would teach the old hag to send me haring off into the depths.

It was all I could do to suppress the moan I felt coming on. Ugh.

With infinite care, I crawled out of bed and to my bathing chambers. I don't know how long I soaked, but it was at least an hour. After that I was starting to feel as close to human as I got. I had just gotten into my robes when I heard a single rap on my bedroom suite's door.

"Enter," I said.

A servant poked his head cautiously into the room. "Your Excellency has a visitor; the Crown Prince calls upon you."

I bit back another curse. Boys always seem to have crappy timing.

"Inform the Crown Prince that I will be along," I said, with a gesture at my unbound hair. "Leave us."

The servant disappeared behind the doors with a bang, and I hurriedly adjusted my hair, spending a precious extra few seconds in front of the mirror making sure it looked right. Hey, I might be a half alien monster that time forgot, but a girl has to look her best.

I came to the sitting room of my wing to find Zuko staring out at the palace grounds. He stood tall in his armor, with his hands crossed behind his back, surveying the great thoroughfare below. From that position he looked surprisingly regal. He turned his head slightly as he heard me come in, and he was back to being an awkward teenage boy.

"Hey," he said softly. There was a hitch in his voice as he said it, and his stance became looser and more informal.

"Hey to you too," I replied. I closed the distance between us until I was only a hand's breadth away. I looked up at him. "Good morning."

Zuko smiled at me. "Good morning. I was wondering…"

He stopped himself at that and shook his head. Whatever he was going to say died on his lips as his eyes unfocused. "My father welcomed me back; as a hero no less."

I cocked my head to the side. I decided to go with his random train of thought. "Isn't that what you wanted?"

Zuko looked pensive. "I don't know."

"Then why worry about it?" I asked. I genuinely didn't understand his obsession with whatever was bothering him. He looked back at me and for a moment I thought that he might actually tell me, but he just shrugged.

"For reasons you wouldn't really care about," he said. "If I told you, you'd just tell me to get over myself."

That was probably true, but the lack of trust stung a little. Of course, who was I to talk?

"Alright," I said after a moment of silence. It was strangely comfortable, just being silent in the same room with him. He was one of the only people I'd ever met outside my relatives who didn't mind the silences. The quiet wasn't empty around Zuko. It was tense, but in kind of a pleasant way. I gently lifted an eyebrow. "What were you talking about earlier? You wanted to ask me something?"

"Oh!" he exclaimed. Then he looked sheepish. "I was, uh, wondering if you were free to go out this afternoon. I know you're probably busy and all but I have this place I'd really like tmph…"

I hate it when he rambles. But it can be fun to shut him up.

I broke the kiss and rocked back on my heels with a satisfied feeling. "I'd love to go. Stop by around four?"

"Sure," Zuko said, sounding a little dumbstruck. I loved doing that to him. Besides, he really did talk too much.

I turned to walk away, and I put a little sway into my hips. I paused at the door and looked over my shoulder. "I'm looking forward to it."

Zuko nodded dumbly, and I graced him with one of my rare smiles. Even though it was agony every time I did it, for the first time in a very long time, I actually felt like smiling.

Of course, after the rest of my day I was not in a smiling mood at all. The good news was that last night's extremely startling revelations had put off the Matriarchy's inquisition for awhile. News of this nature needed to be sent on with all haste, and it wasn't something mother wanted to leave to chance. Therefore she was taking it herself; praise be to Agni.

"The Elders are going to convene the Council for the first time in fifty years," Mother said. I stood, lounging in her doorway, and watched as she carefully packed away a few items that neither of us particularly wanted the servants to see. It's hard to explain why the supposedly helpless mother of an infant was packing away a barbed steel gauntlet that looked like something out of a campfire horror story; and that was the most easily explainable of the items in question.

"Then I'm to take care of family business in the Capital while you're away?" I asked. She made a clicking sound in her throat; sort of the Gel-Hassad equivalent of a nod I suppose. Crap.

"Don't worry about Tom-Tom," she continued. "I've taken measures to ensure he will be taken care of. The Vrai family has offered to take him in for the duration."

"You want them to think I'm not responsible?" I asked, trying to sound bored instead of furious at the slight. I mean, the little runt was annoying, but he _was_ my brother.

"No," she said and she turned her head to blink three times at me with her inner eyelid. It was the People's version of a smirk. "I want you to have as much free time with your old… acquaintance as possible."

It was all I could do not to smack myself in the head. Even my cursed _mother_ was trying to set me up. Of course, from her perspective it made a great deal of sense. Having one of the People close to the throne would be a major coup. She'd probably gain Elder status for that. Until I did something to displace her, that is. I wasn't about to let her guide my love life anymore than she already had. Of course, I wasn't going to tell her that either. She was smart; she'd figure it out on her own eventually.

"As you wish," I said flatly. It probably wasn't healthy to entertain fantasies of matricide, but I was far from perfect.

"Good," she said, finishing the last wrappings on her 'special' bundle. "Now, I believe the steward has the list of holdings to review with you. I'm sure it will be educational. Perhaps you'll even enjoy it."

In point of fact, it made me want to murder even more than I had before. I had known we owned a lot of property near the Capital. What I hadn't known was that my eel-spawn of a mother hadn't touched anything for over a month. This meant I had an awful lot of things that needed my damn seal on them. I think that the paperwork was actually taller than me when I sat down at my desk. At an even six feet, I'm not exactly short either.

Our solicitor, Jai Li, was a clever fellow, and he managed to help me find everything that I needed to take care of immediately, but that was still a stack taller than my forearm. I also never signed anything without reading it carefully. That was the road to ruin, especially in land deals with up and coming nobles who thought they were smarter than everyone else. The stupid bastards never considered that the rest of us had gotten here long ago for a _reason_.

I had lunch at my desk and continued working steadily. I had one of the servants set up a target against the far wall, and every time I had to read a sub-clause that began with the words 'Excepting in the following circumstances' I threw a dart into it. By mid afternoon, the thing looked more like a porcupine than it did a round target.

"Agni damn it, Jai Li," I said with my teeth clenched, hurling a dart that went so deep in passed through the target and into the wall. "You can tell 'Lord' Sai Jo that I'm not going to budge on this. If he wants a 'vacation' home for the price he's offering, he can go look in the bloody Occupied Territories; because he sure as hell won't find one here. If he wastes any more of my time with these ludicrous lowball offers, I'm going to have a talk with him; in _my_ preferred language."

The dart quivered in the target ominously.

Jai Li smiled. He never said it, but I think he preferred my 'style' of management. "As you wish, my lady."

A knock at the door interrupted the _next_ idiot's proposal. My eyes were burning so much that I covered my dual blink with the palms of my hands. I didn't even bother to restrain my snarl.

"What?"

"Paperwork?" a rough voice commented. Zuko stood in the doorway with an expression that tried to be neutral, but looked suspiciously on the verge of becoming a full blown grin. Probably complete with maniacal cackling. He'd never actually do it, but I _knew_ he was thinking it.

"Leave us," I said to my solicitor. Jai Li bowed with a smile and walked out, shutting the door behind him. I slumped back in my chair.

"Aargh!" I growled. "That's it. I'm going to kill them; all of them."

"Who?" Zuko asked, stepping lightly over to stand behind my shoulder.

"I'm going to start with the Fire Nation," I said. My voice was dangerously flat. "And then, I'm going to work my way out."

His arms wrapped around me from behind. "You're pretty when you're angry."

No matter how hard I tried, with his arms holding me like that, I just couldn't hold onto my bad mood any longer. I relaxed backward, leaning my head on his bicep and closing my eyes. Agni, I'm such a sap.

"Take me out of this place. Before I start to bleed ink."

Zuko seemed happy to oblige.

"I hate the orange of the sunset," I said. Something about it reminded me of my vision. Not in a good way, either.

"You're so beautiful when you hate the world," Zuko said mildly. We were sitting out above the Caldera, looking at the descending sun in the west. I looked up at him.

"Well, I know one thing I don't hate," I commented. "I don't hate you."

He grinned ever so slightly. "I don't hate you too."

You know, I don't think I'll ever get tired of the kissing. As I mentioned before, for a trained killer, I'm kind of a closet romantic; and I think I've gotten worse at hiding it over the years. Or maybe it was just Zuko.

"So there you are brother. I needed to talk with you; alone."

Azula. Great.

Zuko turned to look at her with a look of disinterest that surprised me. "I'm busy."

He quite deliberately ignored her and turned back to give me his full attention. Wonder of wonders, Zuko was growing a spine. I think I liked it on him.

"Mai," Azula said, in that saccharine tone that means you're seconds away from a world class ass kicking. "Ty Lee needs help untangling her braid."

I went through all of the forty different responses that came to mind, decided that not a single one of them wouldn't result in a beat down, and nodded. I squeezed Zuko's hand, and got up to leave. I managed to restrain my irritation until I was past her line of sight; but I knew that she knew anyway. We'd been friends so long I didn't have a hope of hiding that from her.

The walk home was long enough that my anger at being interrupted had faded to a sort of coal-like heat at the core of my stomach. She was probably just doing it to tweak us; she loved those little games. I guess they were just there to show us that she was in charge. I had put up with them when I was younger. I didn't know better at that time, and I certainly didn't have many friends. She was the first person to ever value me for my own virtues instead of my family connections. Azula would always be my first friend. I didn't know if she was my best friend though. I wasn't sure she even had friends anymore and for some reason that thought made me sad. Still, it would do no good to get angry at her. She probably wouldn't have me decapitated in the dead of night, but I wasn't exactly ruling it out.

The servants seemed suitably mortified that I had covered the distance by myself on foot from the edge of the caldera. They probably didn't realize I'd been stuck further from home for longer. This time there weren't hostile soldiers that reduced speed to a crawl in order not to alert them of my presence. This time I could actually run. In my human form I can run as fast as any soldier in the army; and due to the difficulty of having most of my training in a more limited state, I was pretty sure my true form was a heck of a lot faster than that.

I wasn't even winded when I reached the gates. One of the servants held the door open for me and I gave them as dignified a nod as I could muster with my hair slightly wind-blown.

"Young mistress," he said. "Representatives of the Vrai family have arrived. They said they were to pick up the young master. I informed them to wait until you returned… they seemed off somehow."

"Off?" I asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Yes mistress," the doorman said. "There were several of them, and they seemed rather well armed for moving a child around in the city. The guards have them under watch right now."

"You spotted them?" I asked. The doorman bobbed his head in acknowledgment. I nodded, satisfied. "That was well spotted. Talk to the master of the household. You are due a raise. However, you will do me this one task. Tell the guards to take my brother to my quarters and seal the door. He should be safe there."

Finally, some heads to break.

They were an oddly mismatched set. I counted five guards with swords around a single table. They stood with a wary alertness that spoke of real combat experience. They were probably veterans who were too old for the strain of continuous active duty but still wanted to use their skills for something. They were the most dangerous kind of soldier. Most of these men had probably been in combat situations for thirty years or more.

By contrast the other three who were talking amongst themselves in the center of the room were dressed in foppish finery. With ring bedecked hands and well maintained beards, they didn't really look like much. That was likely why they were also the deadlier of the two groups. They didn't wear their clothes quite comfortably enough to really be natural in them. It was a seeming, and they weren't the best actors I'd ever seen.

I stood for another moment in the shadowed alcove with my eyes closed clearing my mind and settling my thoughts. Slowly, the noise from the day's annoyances faded, and even my anger at Azula vanished after a time. When I snapped my eyes open again, there was only information before the senses.

"Gentlemen," I called, walking into the room. My mind was already calculating the necessary spread to catch the five guards as the turned in surprise. I adjusted the darts in my hand as they spread out, mimicking their movements with my fingers. They were still clumped together; easy meat. Primary dispersal was calculated in a few seconds. Either they hadn't heard of me, or they were stupidly overconfident; and either way, advantage to me.

"Mistress," said one of the fops with an exaggerated bow. He swept forward, and performed a deep swish with his right arm in front of his body. My eyes caught the motion of his hand. In the Void state I saw the tiny tattooed markings on his arm as if he had waved them in front of me.

"Is it the Vrai family's habit to send an Order of the Hawk hunter team to pick up a child? Or do you have another reason for being here?"

Either they didn't know a damn thing about me, which I was considering more likely ever second, or they were better actors than I'd given them credit for previously. The guards looked nervous, but the transformation of Team Fop was extreme. From one moment they went from bored noble retainers to blank eyed killers. Nice trick, really.

"You are well informed for a shut in," one of the well dressed men said.

I nodded, not bothering to speak. My secondary calculations were running in my head, and I didn't have the brainpower to spare.

The three moved to flank me quickly and professionally. Since I was standing in the middle of an open ballroom it wasn't really that hard. Two to either side in the front, and one circled behind.

"Well miss, since you've spotted us, I believe the gig is up," said the speaker. He nodded to the one behind me. "Now, you can give us the child, come with us yourself, or die."

"Did you wonder?" I asked quietly. Secondary acquisition; a six degree adjustment vertical, five degree, six minute adjustment horizontal was required.

"Wonder what?" asked the speaker with an indulgent smile. Secondary acquisition completed; dispersal pattern calculated. Suckers.

"Why there aren't any guards?" I asked mildly. The look of realization on the Speaker's face was worth the wait. I didn't intend to give him a chance to realize the full weight of his mistake.

Before he could shout I went active. Both my hands moved instantly. The second fop to the front was blocking my primary dispersal, so I released the secondary with a swing of my right arm. I released a pattern of six lancet darts on the Speaker. As predicted he dodged the first four, but in doing so put himself in the path of the final two. The neurotoxin on the back of those needles would kill a komodo-rhino in twelve seconds. It would take him until his body hit the ground to completely die. Good thing it didn't work on Gel-Hassad physiology.

With secondary dispersal achieved, I placed my right hand on the ground and pushed up as hard as I could. I wasn't Ty Lee, but I did manage to do a one-handed cartwheel. The Void state slowed my perception as the Primary calculation lined up again. All five of the swordsmen were still clumped together. The shot being upside down made the math a little dodgier, but I released the spread anyway. Seven small knives bracketed the target group. Five hits, five probable kills.

Combat time was eight point four seconds and counting.

The other two reacted predictably. Their bending was both instinctive and professional. Four lances of fire struck out at me. I could judge the angle of their arms. Input processed, I twisted my hip three degrees left and bent backwards until my hands touched the ground behind me. All four blasts passed within inches of my body; one of them underneath the arch of my back. Any one of them would have been near fatal, if they'd made contact. It was too bad I could see it coming before they'd even fired. As the third blast passed underneath me, I let myself fall backwards, tucking into a roll.

The two remaining benders would have three more shots at me, in total, before I could stabilize enough for another attack. The calculation stated this was an acceptable margin; adjustment was not difficult. I sprang up from the roll and went from standing to a full split.

As anticipated, all three blows went over my head, one close enough to singe my hair slightly. It transferred down my nerves in a very painful way. I raised my right arm and released another three dart rounds at the one who'd been behind me. Apparently he was the more talented of the two. He incinerated two of the darts with a blazing kick, but the third buried itself in his calf. He lived another six seconds of excruciating pain.

I released four knives from my left hand at the remaining flunky. They weren't poisoned; and this one was younger. He only got out of the way of one. The other three hit home. One went through his left bicep, the other through his right forearm. The final knife buried itself in his chest, two and a half inches below the heart. As predicted.

Time came rushing back to me as he fell over with a disbelieving screech. Combat time elapsed was a total of thirty two seconds. Just as I left the combat state I deemed this satisfactory. I pulled myself painfully out of the split and I smelt the strange odor of my own burnt hair. The nerves were still raw from the strike; having hair that can be used as a sense organ has a downside sometimes.

The would-be assassin moved away from me, trailing blood on the floor. I looked down at him and exhaled slowly. My muscles were going to kill me for that in an hour; but it had been worth it.

"Stop squirming," I said in my most natural tone of voice. I've found that my usual flat tones did more to disturb people than any display of rage or anger. He either didn't hear me, or was still deep in denial. He continued to writhe towards the door. With a tired sigh I straddled his back and drew out my up close and personal knife. It was about a foot of curved blackened steel, weighted towards the tip. I placed the inside edge underneath his neck and pulled up slowly.

"Who sent you?"

There was the usual blubbering and excuses. I tightened my grip.

"Now," I said. I was loosing patience with the fool.

"I didn't know his name," the assassin began hastily. "But…"

"What did he look like?"

"He was well dressed and… I don't know why, but he was playing a game of Pai-sho when we arrived at the Iron Dragon. The other man was a guard of some kind; quiet killer guy. While we were talking he kept fiddling with one of the tiles. The white lotus tile, I think."

"More description please," I said, this time my blade drawing some blood. "Any features you can remember."

He went on to describe a man in his late forties, well dressed and in good shape. He was probably a noble from the upper quarters or a master merchant from the docks. He claimed that they'd been sent to either apprehend Tom-Tom or bring my corpse back to the merchant. The principal had mentioned something about wanting us for 'study'. The thought of my baby brother on a dissection table made my blood run cold.

"…And that's it," he cried.

I buried my blade beneath his scapula, and the man cried out in agony. Reaching down I pulled up and shed the disguise on my forearms and back, releasing extra muscle power. I imagine his eyes went wide when he saw my bony hands wrap around his head with a vise grip.

"Thanks," I said. "You've been a real help."

"Demon," he choked out. I leaned down, twisting his head painfully so he could see what I truly looked like. The look of utter terror in his eyes as he met mine gave me a surge of furious anger. I hissed at him through my needle teeth, and my sense tendrils flared up tike the fur on a cat that had been threatened. I imagine I looked like I had a halo of serpents.

"Close enough."

I snapped his neck like a twig.

I stood up quickly to avoid the horrible mess that happens when a person dies. It isn't glorious like they say in the ballads. It's crude, ugly, and above all, messy. I carefully pulled my knives and darts out of the bodies and wiped them clean on my robes. I locked the darts back into my wrist launcher and put the knives into my forearm sleeve. As I went, I used my chopping knife to sever the spines of each of them in turn. Not all of them were fully dead yet and I don't take chances.

I felt numb inside. I'd killed before. The Order of Kiyoshi could tell you that in detail. They were damn good for humans, but in the end that's all they were. Azula and I were not, really, and Ty Lee was only barely. She pushed the human limits of ability so far that she was almost something else entirely. However, never had I raised a blade in anger _inside my own home_. It felt like a violation of some kind. Like something sacred had been taken from me.

Oh well. I suppose growing up in the Fire Nation means assassination attempts in your own home. I might as well get used to it now. When I finished, I called for a pair of guards who were specifically on my personal payroll.

"Dispose of these bodies," I said quietly. "Make sure that none of them are seen; they won't be missed."

Once the two fire benders had reduced the offenders to ash, they carefully swept up the remains. Other than the awful smells and the stains of blood and offal, there wasn't really a sign a fight had even taken place. The two men I'd assigned would take care of that last detail. I went through the main atrium and over to my wing of the building. I opened the door carefully, and found a line of household guards ready to strike. They relaxed only slightly when they saw me. Good to know our men were professional.

"It's been taken care of," I said quietly. "You can move my brother. Keep him in my parent's wing under full guard at all times. After this, it's too dangerous to send him anywhere."

"What of you, mistress?"

I arched an eyebrow at the guard. "I will be fine. I have seals within my chambers that are quite hard to break, and as you know, I'm far from helpless."

The guards and I shared that private joke quite often. They had good humor about my superior abilities. In fact, one had even been bold enough to make a comment (he thought he was outside my hearing) that the next time something happened, he should hide behind _me_. I had almost laughed at that. It was one thing to think it, but another to say it out loud.

The guard in question said nothing, but gave me a smile and a respectful bow. "As you say, mistress; we will move your brother now."

I looked down at my stained clothes and the singed tips of my hair. Another expensive outfit ruined. Oh well, I figured. I went back to my room and sorted myself out. I honestly wasn't expecting anything further that night. No one knew _exactly_ what I had done to those assassins save for my two flunkies; but everyone suspected the truth of the matter. I didn't really mind, in point of fact I encouraged the rumors in a small way. Nothing scares off the kind of superstitious bastards that became hit men more than the mystery of an entire strike team of assassins just disappearing one night with my name associated. After all, from their perspective, if you're dead, you don't get paid.

Not only were the servants nervous about my presence, they also all knew that when I shut myself up in my room I was to be completely left alone. Only my mother was usually allowed to call on me, and she was usually smart enough that she chose not to. Therefore I wasn't expecting a knock on my door at midnight. I got up from the chair I'd been snoozing in and walked towards the door. I listened for a moment, straining my senses. Only one person was breathing on the other side of the door.

"This had better be good," I muttered, unsealing the door and opening it cautiously. I had almost expected someone from the authorities, or some other urgent business regarding my brother's safety, so I was in a less hellish mood than usual. I hadn't expected Zuko to be standing there, balancing a tray of food and tea with suspicious proficiency and looking wonderfully awkward.

"Uh, do you mind if I come in?" he asked. I think I was too surprised to actually make a normal facial expression. I nodded dumbly and stepped aside. He swept into my room and with a deft maneuver, placed the tray on a side table and shuffled his feet a little. "I wanted to apologize for this afternoon. Azula was…"

"Azula," I finished with a nod. "I understood but this…"

"Oh," he said. He smirked a little. "Well, I had some business in the city, and when I was done I thought that I ought to see if you were still awake. A little bird told me that you didn't have any dinner so I thought, hey, why not?"

I blinked, taking in the sight of the food on the tray. That and the tea smelled divine. "Thanks."

"No problem," he said. I know he had no idea what had just happened here, but for a moment the absurd normalness of the situation made me feel unusually calm. I walked over to him and hugged him close. I didn't want him to see the tears that were forming in my eyes.

He didn't say anything, he just held me for awhile. After I got my composure back, I released the hug. My voice felt husky and raw. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," he said. He seemed to be picking up on my distressed mood, even though I hadn't mentioned it, and probably hadn't even given away my feelings with an expression. I figured he thought he was making up to me for the interrupted picnic. However, at that moment, all that I felt was that even though someone had tried to kill me less than five hours ago, there was still someone who cared; and that meant more to me in that moment that anything else could.

I watched as he poured me a cup of tea and placed a few different cakes on a plate he handed to me. I accepted it and sank back into my chair. It was at that point that I noticed Zuko's eyes moving towards rather indecent parts of me and then snapping back towards the food. I blinked when I realized that I wasn't wearing anything more than a very flimsy silk night robe. I looked down at myself ruefully.

"Sorry I didn't put anything more on," I said as I walked over to my closet and pulled out a much less revealing dressing gown.

"Uh, I don't mind," he began. He stopped as soon as he realized how that sounded. "That is…"

Most men eyeing me the way he had been would have disgusted me. From him it was cute more than it was anything else. He was trying so hard to preserve some kind of dignity.

"I don't mind," I said quietly. He blinked and looked over at me. Decent aim this time; he was actually looking at my face.

"What do you mean?" he asked in that choked voice that teenage boys have when they run into something awkward.

"I don't mind you looking at me," I said. I walked over to him, more dressed now, and ran my hand along his jaw line. Of course, it never hurt to get the point across. I curved my hands so that my very sharp nails could dig into the soft skin under his jaw. "Of course, if you look at another girl that way, I might have to get… creative.'

Zuko gulped, and seemed to scramble around for a recovery. "Long day in the office, huh?"

I thought back on what had happened today.

"Yeah," I said with a nod. "How about you? What kind of business did you have to conduct at midnight?"

He said nothing for a moment, and I felt an invisible wall slam between us. "I had some negotiations that couldn't wait until morning."

"Okay," I said, knowing fully damn well that the Crown Prince just back from exile probably had no damn business at all. Ozai wouldn't let him near anything; not without proving himself further. I wondered what he was playing at. However, even showing up was a measure of trust that he probably couldn't have afforded with anyone else. I let the matter drop. It wouldn't do any good to nose around in his business. Besides, he might start doing the same to me, and I couldn't afford to have that happen for a lot of reasons. I couldn't help but wonder why he would have even told me anything. Even the fact that he had come here… it was strange to me.

Dinner was pleasingly quiet, but there was still something nagging at my senses. I had operated in such a heightened state just a relatively short while ago that my perception was still magnified in the strangest of ways. I felt the agony of my injuries multiplied by my awareness. The bitter tang of the tea was enhanced, and the pleasant wind from the windows felt like a hurricane on my skin. I watched Zuko from the strangely surreal state that had settled on me. It appeared something in the window had caught his attention. He placed his cup down with an exaggerated care and turned to look up at Luna. He stood up, and moved to the window as if in a dream.

It was then that I chose to use the Void Sight upon him. Some say that the Sight is a gift given from the Gods of the Old Ones. Others say it is merely an induced state of Void clarity; a perfected moment of probabilistic calculation. I honestly don't know, and probably never will. What I know is that it can at moments give an unrivaled insight into what you're looking at. The only downside of using such a technique is that it is impossible to forget what it was that you saw. There is a level of self-honesty that the technique required that means forgetting or denying is impossible. It's why hardly any of us use it unless we have to. I honestly didn't know why I did it. Maybe I was trying to bridge that gap of understanding between us, to resynchronize us at some level. To the day I died, I suspect I'd never fully know.

Whatever the case, in the moment when he turned back to look at me I saw something change in his stance as the moonlight played over him. Under her shining halo I saw something in his face; an incredible sadness, and the core of compassion he tried so desperately to hide with his rough exterior and his furious anger.

I don't think he even noticed the way my eyes widened, but in that brief moment I saw something in his soul. An inner fire flared so bright in that moment it was almost blinding. It was all I could do not to leap backwards panic as a troubled teenage boy was transformed into a Seraphim of Agni. A thousand blazing eyes saw deep into my essence and its flaming wings pierced the vault of the heavens.

The room faded from my sight until I was only a broke demoness kneeling upon the bodies of those I had slain looked up into the terrible gaze of the flaming angel.

"Behold," its voice echoed in the nothing. "The Last of the Four is called to serve. He shall be named 'The Flame Which Renews as it Destroys' the will of Agni and Solaris, my chosen son. He who would restore the world walks beneath my gaze, and woe be unto any whom bar his path for they face My Wrath."

The judgment of a foreign Divinity scrutinized me, and I'd never felt more naked than under its blazing gaze. Then the angel was gone, and I was staring blankly at Zuko. It must have been for only a second, because even when I tore my eyes away in an instant, he didn't react.

A sick emptiness begin to spread through my stomach as I felt the weight of the Angel's pronouncement settle upon my shoulders; because I realized in that moment that Zuko was a truly _good_ man. Good in a way that I could never be, pure in a way that I had denied myself the luxury of being, despite his scars and bloodstained hands. Perhaps it was even because of them. I had seen the real Zuko in the inferno of the manifestation of Agni's will, a flashing instant of the years and experiences that separated us more than distances of his long exile ever could, and that terrified me in a way that I had no name for. My near-mindless dread could only focus on the greatest thing the burning gaze had transferred to me; he still felt the guilt- a weight that would and had crushed lesser men. I closed my Void sight before my mind was blinded forever.

After he left that night, I cried myself to sleep for the first time in years because I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Zuko was a real prince; the kind out of fairy tales. I had never believed before, never understood. My entire life had been filled with charades and secrets. It was what I expected of life; but when I _really _saw him, saw that man I'd been trying so hard to see, all my pessimistic illusions were shattered. I'd found out that fairy tales really did exist. But that knowledge was bittersweet in my heart, because I also knew that a prince, a real prince, could never love a monster.

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**Richard Caine - The Jade Knight**

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	8. A Warrior's Instincts

_Disclaimer: We do not own anything except the original plot lines... and my penguin... alright I'll say it... we own Richards monkey to... so -without permission- no touchy!_

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AN: Well, sorry this chapter took a little longer then usual but as you can see its a little longer then the last few. The reason is I got a big plot turn coming in my next chapter and I wanted to finish this stuff up. So anyway lets get on with some fights and fluff. 

-The Man in The Jade Armor

P.S. I am still trying to figure out how to add mods to the forums... any help?

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NEW THING: I shall be dividing the story up into saga's as well now... for a definition on saga's read the note after the chapter.

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_Curtain Up!_

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**Sokka; Master of The Black Sword**

By: Jade Knight

Beta and creative consultant: Richard Caine

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**-Tournament Saga- **

**Chapter 8**

(Just to clear this up now, this is(under the saga name) is the counter for the _total chapters_. The Counter under 'Story of Sokka' is the number of _sokka chapters_ we have had so far.)

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The Story of Sokka

Chapter 6: A Warrior's Instincts

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When I'd awakened the next morning, earlier than the others like I did every morning; I spend several long and very apprehensive minutes deciding if I wanted to go through with my morning ritual of meditation. What if I dropped in on creepy kitty or that Mouretsu guy again? The cat spirit was annoying as hell, almost burnt me to a crisp and then showed me a vision of myself looking death himself. Mouretsu at least had talked to me like a normal person, even though he obviously wasn't normal. What was with him? Was he some great leader of 'our' people? And what people was he talking about? I sighed, my mind was a raging ocean of doubts and fears.

In the end I charged right in and was met with the usual relaxation of peaceful quite as I listened to the distant morning song of the birds. I admit I was really worried there for a bit. What if the furry mongrel was there or someone worse?

After I had calmed my mind and quelled my fears I started to think about what I was going to tell the gang. Could I tell them that I had spoken to a fleabag who said I was the Avatars opposite? Yeah, that didn't sound insane in the slightest. I'll just wake them up and regale the tales of my excursion into the spirit world. Sure, they won't think me mad.

What was I going to do? _Was _I going insane? Does a crazy man know he's crazy?

I don't think I'm crazy, but that didn't mean I wasn't. I hope I wasn't, but I thought that what I had seen and heard while in the 'Spirit World' would sound insane. If someone told me the same story I'd alert the men in white coats. What if it all was just something my mind had come up with? Really, a being that stood as the Avatar's equal? I didn't think it was just a dream or a hallucination, but how could I be sure? I silently resolved not to tell the others until I absolutely needed to; whether it was real or a product of my mind, they would worry too much.

That decided I spent the rest of my time contemplating what the nature of insanity was, until I had to get up and help make breakfast. I yawned loudly and Toph threw out her normal nickname of 'Snoozles' and I grinned.

-

I smiled at Salazar beneath my mask. The light wind we were having today ruffled my gray robe lightly; probably looked pretty cool. The sun was high and the fans were pumped up for the first semi-final match of the Soudatsu, starring me! I threw a cocky little salute in Salazar's direction and smirked when his shoulders jerked in a silent laugh of amusement. The crowd was screaming like a hurricane as the spectral hero; Ghost faced off against his newest foe. I had become quite famous in the last week.

Seven fights.

Seven fantastic and flawless victories.

Whistles, screams and thunderous chants reverberated around the large arena. I raised my black sword and they screamed so loud it sounded like a bomb went off. A woman cried as she threw a red rose onto the packed dirt that made up the floor of the arena.

Oh boy, now I had a stalker. Well, maybe not, but it's still a little creepy.

I went through a few fast and flashy battle sequences for the fans. My blade whisked around my robed body, cutting the air with a shrieking howl. I kicked off of the ground did a tight somersault, banishing my blade in a fancy flourish before I dropped back to the ground perfectly. The roar of a thousand voices rolled over me and I laughed raising my sword in triumph once again.

Yeah, I was acting a little over confident, but I had not forgotten Toph's words of wisdom. I was just having a little fun. I knew that the second I believed I was great I was finished. So with that sobering thought I wandered over to stand a foot or so from Salazar.

"Did you have fun?" asked Salazar, still wearing his black and orange fox mask. His claymore hung loosely from his hip, still sheathed, so in the name of fair game I slid my own black blade back into its scabbard. Once that was done I must have stunned a few people in the stands by offering Salazar my hand, but he still took it without a second thought and shook it firmly; his chain mail shirt rattling with his movements.

"The fun's just about to start." I said letting my smirk come through in my voice. I received another laugh as the ref needlessly went over the rules.

"Well look who came." said Salazar looking to the left. Following his gaze I was lost for a moment before I ran across those familiar misty eyes. I chuckled again. Toph had gotten front row seats. My match had been the first of the day and I had 'gone to get an autograph' while Toph had gotten the seats. To her right Katara was trying her hardest to seem like she thought this tournament was 'barbaric' and just and 'outlet for male's hormones' even though she was watching every move Salazar and I made.

Suddenly a gasp from Salazar caught my attention. I looked over to him wondering what was up, but I couldn't make out anything because of his mask. Following his eyes back to the rest of the gang I was completely baffled.

"Salazar, something wrong?" I asked slightly concerned.

For a short while longer he just started off at something then he turned back to me. I frowned behind my own mask; he was holding himself differently now. A minute ago we had been two friends facing off to have a good time. We both wanted to win, sure, but we were still friends. Now he was looking at me like he was seeing me for the first time; like I was an enemy. Blast that damned mask of his, I couldn't make out anymore of what he was thinking. What cause that sudden shift in body language?

"Salazar?" I asked again concerned.

For a long moment he started at me, drilling into my head. I was starting to get a little worried. What was wrong? Then he shook his head as though trying to dislodge a stubborn thought. "Don't worry about it Brenton."

"But-"

"I'll explain later." He said cryptically. I wasn't completely satisfied with that answer, but I trusted that he'd be more forthcoming once the fight was over.

"Alright." I agreed simply, if be it unsure. "Are we still good?"

Again it took him a long time to answer, and he looked back at the others once more. "Yes." He said. His voice was once again sure and strong.

Trusting that he was okay, at least for now I dropped into my Scorpion stance and waited. Across from me Salazar drew his huge claymore and took a basic Fire-Nation combat stance. Immediately I switched into warrior mode and started to analyze his stance and tried to come up with a counter. Clever bastard, I had studied his battle forms up until now carefully and in picking such a basic stance he was hoping to keep his strategy secret up until the last second.

With my head completely in the game I almost forgot the slight altercation we had just had when the ref called 'Fight!'.

I raced forward as fast as I could and just when I was about to enter Salazar's strike zone I pivoted on my right foot, dropped, and swung out with my left leg in a tight tripping swipe. My attack had been immediate and the people in the crowd were stunned silent for a millisecond before the booming cheer at the start of the match rolled over me.

Salazar didn't jump or try to dodge in any way. Instead he squared his stance a little more and let my ankle slam painfully to a stop on his boot. _Oh crap._ I barely had time to register the pain of impact before the shadow of his Claymore descended upon me. I twisted to the side as fast as I could, and felt a pang of fear as the enormous sword followed suit. In the end I managed to get my right arm beneath my chest and was able to put enough distance between myself and the ground to execute a tight roll.

I quickly bounced to my feet as the ring of steel biting earth hit in my ears. I knew this fight would be tough, but never like this. Salazar was the worst opponent I could get, someone who was fast and was able to switch between pure power and a style much like my own; someone who _understood_ my style. If I gave even the slightest indication of how or where I was going to attack he would know _exactly_ how to move to cancel out my power-reversal techniques.

I shivered with excitement; this was going to be a close fight.

"Almost got you," He said coyly as he turned to me, resting his huge and now dirty blade on his shoulder.

"I let you; get you over confident and all that."

"Right," He drawled. "Ready to try again?"

"Damn straight." I said firmly through a huge grin, once again taking my stance. This time it was Salazar that attacked first, coming forward unnaturally fast for his larger frame. I tightened my grip on my blade and picked my target carefully. Salazar's claymore descended fast and heavy; I had no chance of taking the full brunt of the blow, so the best I could do was a deflection. The metallic ringing of steel on steel filled the wide battle pit as I was pushed into the first real sword fight since Piando-sense.

I fought back with everything I had, deflection strike after bone rattling strike, but I couldn't keep this up forever. I was the weaker opponent here and I couldn't get any of my good moves in. I was pushed back step by step across the ring, always on the defensive, always retreating. Salazar started to attack much more viciously, every blow harder and more precise than the last. I couldn't keep this up much longer, I needed to try something new, this was going nowhere but my defeat.

Switching to the Fire-Style I stepped into a combat sequence, letting my instincts guide my hands as I kept to the absolute basics of the style, the kind they teach you on the first day. Salazar was suitably surprised at the change, and I took my chance right then. With a battle cry I lunged at him in a sharp thrust. He dodged the initial attack like I knew he would, but I was already moving into the secondary swing. I hear a quick intake of breath before Salazar managed to bring the guard of his claymore up in a clumsy maneuver just high enough to stop the strike. Leaving him with a numb wrist I continued by. The second I hit the ground I stumbled a little from the unorthodox attack, and out of the corner of my eye I just saw Salazar risk a quick glance over to where the gang stood, cheering me on the with rest of the crowd.

In the middle of a fight he had taken the time to look into the crowd for a specific group of people? I almost cackled like a maniac. Piando-sense had once told me that everyone had a weak spot; a way to be defeated, all I needed was to find it. _There_ was my way to win this match.

But what was he looking for? I shook that thought off for the moment, I needed to be in the now, looking too far ahead is an endgame for a swordsman. I needed foresight without blindness in the moment.

I recovered from my stumble a little slower then I normally would and ran right back into the fray. Our blades crossed again and again, for several tense and long minutes I fought slowly and methodically; making it look like I was being thrown off balance every once in a while, and taking just a little long to recover each time. Finally I felt the time was right and went for it.

I deflected the final herculean blow and threw myself to the right in a controlled fall. I watched Salazar out of the corner of my eye and when he shifted his focus back to the gang just slightly I went into action.

Immediately and with perfect timing I twisted just enough to get one of my knees below me and I flipped back onto my feet, reestablished my balance, and charged. He never saw me coming. I came at him fast, hard and silent except for the sound of my feet pounding the hot, packed earth. I raised my blade and brought it down in a fast chopping motion hitting his Claymore and knocking it from his grip. Salazar turned back to me, no doubt with a confused expression on under his mask. I grinned behind my own mask as I watched his eyes go wide through the eye-slits on the grinning fox. We were standing mere inches apart, so close that I could hear him swallow hard He looked down and saw the tip of my black blade pressed to his throat and his claymore on the ground.

"Booyah," I whispered, just loud enough for him to hear. Behind me the crowd detonated. Once again they started to chant, scream and generally just make noise. I took a step back and let Salazar catch up with what was happening while I grabbed his claymore up. I handed the blade back to him, hilt first and couldn't help but grin an unseen grin. He looked me over for a moment before he took the sword back and re-sheathed it on his hip.

"Awesome fight," I said. "No hard feelings?" And then I offered him my hand once more. He looked down at it for several seconds while the announcer called out fight time and other what not. I almost started to think something was up before he clasped my hand in a firm shake.

"Good fight," he agreed, although his voice was much more somber then before.

"Something up?" I asked, a little concerned.

"No," he said. "But after the championship fight tomorrow let's get together for a drink at the Herring Bar. We've got a few things to discuss." I shifted uncomfortably.

"Nothing bad," he said with a small chuckle, a bounce back in his voice. "Just a few things I have to tell you."

-

The sun had set an hour ago and I was dead tired, these fights really take it out of me. I stared into the crackling fire and thought about how I was going to defeat my final opponent. He was fast; impossibly fast. He seemed to even dodge attacks completely out of his line of sight, how that was possible I have no idea, but it worried me. I was a pretty good swordsman and I had managed to emerge victorious in the last eight fights, but this last one concerned me.

I had almost been swept up in the thrill of the fight and forgotten the reason I had entered this tournament until I had stood on the precipice of defeat while facing Salazar earlier today. I needed to win for the wellbeing of the others; my sister, Aang and Toph. They were the reason I fought, they were the reason I _needed_ that money. We were nearly broke and unless I got the winnings we would be in very deep trouble at the end of two weeks when our rations ran out.

Katara may be the lioness of our group, viciously protecting the gang against any who wish us physical harm, but I was something else entirely. I was the one behind the scenes, the one standing in the wings not having the power to take center stage, unable to contend with the power of the benders. I was the intelligent defender, the one who drew on every resources and every sliver of clever trickery and planning to make sure my family was safe and secure.

Whether it was a physical attack, starvation, demoralization, or infighting that threatened my small and broken family, I was there to stand in its path and battle it back. I was their absolute line of defense. Not a thing will harm any of them as long as I draw breath. I have lost enough friends, family, allies and others who meant everything to me, but never again. I would use every strength and power at my disposal to defend them, fight with every ounce of energy, plan with every thought until my head hurt. I was the line, the one defense that will never stand aside and never fall.

It was right then that I knew in my bones that something was going to happen, that there was something to what Mouretsu and the cat had said. I felt the black thunderhead of danger rolling in on the horizon threatening my family, and I felt no fear. I was the line that would never fall, never step aside and never abandon them. I don't know exactly what is coming but I will be ready, by the blood in my beating heart I will be ready.

Suddenly something very warm and soft dropped against my shoulder. Looking down I smile warmly when I met the closed eyes a slumbering Toph. She had fallen asleep with a cup of tea in her hands, and although the tea cup had fallen to the ground she had unconsciously leaned into me. I just watched her for a while, watched the light of the dying fire dance across her lax features, watched her brow crinkle for a moment before she burrowed a little deeper into my side and drifted deeper into sleep. All of the worries of the moment slipped from my mind in a moment.

"We should all be getting to bed," said Katara from the other side of the fire where she was sitting on one of the logs we used as benches. To my left, also looking about ready to drop was Aang. Katara got up and threw a little water into the fire pit, drowning the last embers before she poked Aang toward his usual sleeping place atop Appa.

"You'll have to carry her."

"What?" I asked confused.

"I'm not strong enough and unless you want to deal with a vengeful and drowsy Toph you'll have to put her into her tent," my sister explained. Looking down at Toph I really didn't _want _to wake her up. But what if she woke up while I was carrying her? She _hated _anyone treating her like a kid, or like she was weak. I think I had just started to make a little progress in getting her to open up to me. I didn't want to ruin it. I decided to just deal with her and wake her up, but found I couldn't bring myself to disturb her. I looked up at Katara for help with a pleading expression on my face, but she only gestured to Toph again. I sighed; fine, but this had better not come back to bite me.

I moved as quietly as I could without bumping Toph who was still sleeping against my side and managed to get my arms around her. Then I lifted and was amazed at how light she was. Again I was reminded that even though she was tough as nails, she was still just a girl. I dared not tell her that for fear of smashing, size or no she was still a tough little cookie. She mumbled something in her sleep and squirmed around a bit. I had no problem holding onto her, but what if she _woke up_! She stopped moving, nuzzled into my chest a little more and with a sigh that prickled all the way up my spine drifted off again.

After she settled again I moved from the mouth of the cave toward where we had set up the tents, and made my way over to her stone crafted one. Falling to my knees as smoothly as possible, I crawled into the stony room and laid her gently on her tussled sleeping back. I took of the sole-less shoes she wore and put them to the side, closely followed by the bronze tiara that had been in her hair. After I made sure she was comfortable I draped her blanket over her and was just about to leave when I was stopped.

"Sokka?" asked Toph in a sleep slurred voice, squinting at me. I felt a cold wash cover me.

"Yes?" I asked hoping that she wouldn't be to mad. She looked around, seeing that she was in her tent and no doubt remembering that she fell asleep by the fire.

"Did you carry me in here?"

I swallowed hard,_ Please don't be mad. _"Yes, I did."

"Oh," she said, and then she let her head fall back onto the pillow. "Okay."

I stayed an instant longer, just watching her slip back into a peaceful sleep. A ghost of a smile graced her face right before I left.

I slowly walked back to the mouth of the cave to make sure the fire was completely out and ended up staring up at the moon afterwards. The stars twinkled up there in the wide expanse of the sky, little points of light valiantly fighting the darkness. I took a deep breath of the cool night air and let it out in a hiss before I turned back and made my way back to my tent. The stars winked back at me, their light a reminder that tickled the back of my mind. My thoughts turned back to earlier, and really, only a single thought remained.

I am the line.

-

"Know what you're going to do?" asked Salazar just behind me. I was facing the heavy wooden door that lead out into the arena, back in my gray robe, and I had no idea what I was going to do.

"Win," I said as firmly as I could in a shaky voice. I had no idea of how to beat this guy. He was good; too good. He moved like a hurricane and cut in the space between seconds. I had always gone in with something; a battle plan, strategies. Hell, I may not have known exactly how to beat Salazar until the last minute but I had studied him and understood my own inferiority. This guy; this 'Senchi' was of a skill level so far above me that I couldn't even begin to stand a chance. I was going to lose.

Fear coiled in my stomach, but it was not the fear of a lost battle; it was the fear of months of watching the others hurting because I wasn't strong enough to protect them. I clenched my fists tight trying to easy the cold pain settling in my gut. I needed to concentrate. I would give everything I had in here, I will win. There simply wasn't any other possible outcome.

"You don't have to do this." Salazar said. He had shown up a few minutes before to wish me luck in the match. The finals were all or nothing.

"Yes, I do." I said, my voice as hard as stone as the uniformed Soudatsu official next to me told me to go. I pushed open the doors and the applause that had become the usual rolled over me. This time I didn't fool around and I didn't show off, I just walked, face hard and emotions controlled into the center of the arena and waited.

I looked into the crowd searching for the gang; for those misty eyes. Since it was the final match of the Soudatsu I was the main event. I had never seen the arena this full before, it seemed like the entire village had turned out. Thousands of faces stared and screamed and cheered, but I was searching for one.

A bit of a ruckus dragged my attention to the left. Looking over I saw a huge man, looked like Kujo's son actually; all hairy muscles and what not. And shouting at him for all she was worth was little Toph. She was tiny compared to him, but she bellowed horrible insults and jabbed her finger into his gut until he looked about ready to kill. A couple of his buddies came up behind mini-Kujo and tried to look dangerous. Toph had had enough; she kicked the poor mountain in the grits and continued to scream down at him while he held himself writhing on the ground. Kujo Junior's friends started forward and in an instant they joined their friend in similar pain. It wasn't the most dignified victory, but since Toph couldn't Earthbend here in the full sight of five thousand Fire-Benders it was the most pain she could give them while still maintaining our cover.

Toph spit down at them, scream once more and then tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear before turning to the battle pit. Behind her Katara looked down her nose at the men on the ground, and Aang looked like he almost wanted to make sure they were okay. I smiled at the scene along with a number of other people. It was being taken as a pre-game show and I'm pretty sure not all of the cheering right now was for me.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the finals of the Ninth annual Homarnu Soudatsu." The announcer paused for a few moments to let the crowd scream a bit. "In the gray robes, wearing a white mask, is the rookie sensation that's tearing up this year's competition; the man without a name, the ghoul of the battle pit. Let's have a round for the_ Ghost!_" I silently raised my black sword in acknowledgment and then re-sheathed it soon after.

After the cheering wound down far enough for the announcer to be heard again he continued. "And in the other corner, another rising champion, undefeated nine flawless victories in a row is your hero and mine; _Senchi Maraw_."

Across from me, the huge wooden door creaked open and my opponent walked calmly toward me at a steady pace. Completely unfazed by the crowd and the noise around us he focused completely upon me, his dark eyes drilling into mine even though it was impossible with my mask on. His hands were clasped loosely at his back like a soldier's would be; he even held himself like a military man. But he would look really out of place in a barracks. His face was pale and sharp, all angles and thin lines. His mouth was a perfectly flat line and not a crease marked his brow. His face was so emotionless yet perfect it was unsettling.

He wore a robe, but unlike mine his was obviously expensive and tailored. The shiny ruby red fabric, trimmed in a deep, almost black blue showed not a sigh of dirt or even use for that matter. It might really have never been used before today, every time I had seen him up until now he had been wearing different -albeit just as costly- garb. At his hips, in -also custom- gold plated sheathes were two wickedly curved scimitars.

He stopped a few feet from me and seemed to examine me, his long sandy hair dancing in the mild breeze. It was very unsettling, I felt like I was begin taken apart bit by bit and stored as a column of numbers for future reference. He never looked away from my eyes, keeping constant contact, and I sure as hell wasn't going to be the one to blink. For several stressful and calculating moments we just stood starting at one another, we didn't even hear the ref start the fight.

Both of our blades were untouched, my arms were crossed and his still held at his back but we didn't make any move while we faced off. He looked curious, like a child presented with an unknown device. All of this I gathered from his dark eyes since his face _still _held no expression.

"You shook your last opponent's hand; why?" Senchi asked. His voice was carefree and light.

"He and I are friends. It was our way of saying that there would be no hard feelings no matter the outcome of that match." I replied, never taking my eyes off of him.

"When you defeated him, did he have hard feelings?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

I felt my expression darken, what was he getting at? "I'm sure. He was in the fighters' area with me moments before, wishing me luck now."

By now the crowd was getting antsy, wondering why we weren't fighting. But a slap of a surprise hit me when Senchi held his own hand out to me.

"No hard feelings, no matter the outcome." He said, his face still betraying nothing. I was stunned, but quickly recovered.

"Why?" I asked, letting my gaze drop to his hand for a second.

"You have fought with honor and courage thus far, making every effort to defeat your opponents with the minimal pain inflicted. I find these a rare and admirable qualities and I am happy to say I look forward to testing myself against such a worthy opponent. So, I wish no 'hard feelings' to come of this match."

I was a little taken back by his explanation, but I detected no deception in his words. I looked down at his hand once more as angry shouts and 'boos' started to come from the impatient people watching. Gingerly I reached out and took his hand hard in mine. The shake only lasted for an instant, but there was something very odd about this man. His hand was not clammy or sweaty, it wasn't warm or cold, it just _was_. I can't explain it. It was exactly what a hand should _seem_ like, but too perfect to be normal. But that's crazy talk. Shoving it from my mind I put my head back in the game.

"Ready?" Senchi asked in his maddeningly calm voice, placing both of his hands on the hilts of his blades. "Attack when you will."

I slowly drew by black blade, much to the excitement of those watching. Senchi matched me move for move perfectly, drawing both of his blades in perfect sync with my own black sword. I slid slowly into my scorpion stance and Senchi followed me, dropping into a low-slung very artistic battle stance. One blade held high and just behind his head, and the other's deadly tip was pointed right at my left eye.

I moved in a flash, so fast that I felt the stress of acceleration on my ankles. I came as fast as I possibly could, but he never blinked or even flinched. I knocked away the tip of the blade pointed at my eye and stepped into his guard, hoping that I had the element of surprise. The air shrieked above me and I was just able to bring my blade up to deflect the slicing blow from his second scimitar. Almost immediately the blade I had knocked away initially reversed and came back at me.

It went like this for several psychotic seconds. I stayed in as close as I could, trying to unsettle him into making a mistake; but his attacks were perfect. Many times I would go in for an offensive and could have sworn that he set up a counter even before I started. Our steel crossed again and again, the tinny clang of metals was nearly deafening. But no matter how hard I tried to land a blow one of his scimitars was always right there, with the second already descending upon me.

We broke apart several times, only to slam back together like two battling titans. He moved like a fury, blades everywhere at once; a hurricane of unbreachable steel. And then I started to lose ground.

I felt the edge of one of his razor sharp blades nick my left shoulder an instant before I could move. The following cut split my robe from wrist to elbow on my right arm, a hairs width above my skin. I gasped in surprise of the pain of first blood, but I never broke stride. We clashed again, my warrior's instincts leading my hands and body. I managed to twist out of the way of his steel several more times before we locked into a vicious parry that sent both of us in opposite directions.

The next time we came together I was fighting my fears and trying desperately to hold onto the peace of mind I usually had during a fight. This time it was him that launched the offensive. I turned around and the flash of metal was coming right for me, his face still the immaculate uncaring mask even in the heat of battle, almost like a statue. I deflected the first dozen savage trusts aimed at my gut and managed to twist away from the next one, but the last attack pierced my defenses and struck my mask. I heard a loud grinding sound as the cold steel carved a long scar from just over the right eye all the way down to the chin where the tip of the blade slipped off of the dried clay and inflicted another wound this time on my chest.

My left hand left the hilt of my sword and went to my face in an instant. I ran my palm over the mask, relived to find it whole. But my greatest mistake had already been made; I had taken my hand off of my blade when my opponent was right in front of me.I saw the sun glint off of the side of Senchi's scimitar as it was thrust violently at my face. I brought my blade up, but it was too late, all I could do was try to dodge. I managed to move to the left, out of the direct path of the thin blade, but I still felt the sting of the metal cutting into the tip of my ear. Then I felt a tug at the straps holding my mask on.

_Gods no!_

I had moved, but not enough. The blade that had cut my ear hooked onto the strap holding my mask to my face and sliced through the fabric. I had been moving as fast as I could, trying to pull away from the strike that would reveal my identity. I had built up way too much momentum. I tried to get my feet beneath me, but I was so thrown off that I stumbled. My vision went black for a moment as my white mask flew from its place on my face and skittered across the ground, coming to rest against the wall separating the first row of spectators from the battle pit; too far for me to reach it without presenting my face to everyone. I completely lost my balance and fell to the ground, grinding to a painful stop on my knees, so close to the wall that separated the first row from the battle pit that I could pick out the grains in the wood. Mere inches between me and whoever was on the other side, and knowing my luck...

My heart pounded as I kept my face down and tried to close the mouth of the hood around my face with my free hand. I couldn't let the gang find out what I had done like this. I was defeated royally, on my knees, cut and bloody and only seconds from losing my only chance to protect them.

I was weak, Katara was right.

I listened behind me and was confuse to find that Senchi had not moved from the place he had stood when putting me into this situation. Why wasn't he coming over to claim his victory? Damn it, did he want to make it worse for me by making me give up?

The buzzing of whispers and questions filled the air. The audience was wondering what had happened. One of the thousands of voices came from in front of me, and when I heard it my insides grew cold and painful.

"Is he alright?" asked Aang. Of course, what was a great defeat if your friends and family weren't right there to witness it?

"I think so. It didn't look like he got hit to hard," said my sister, only feet in front of me.

"Get your ass up and show him what you're made of," shouted a small but powerful voice. I frowned, _Toph_? A moment later a delicate hand entered my eyesight from the top and held my fire-nation hair clip out to me.

"Kick his ass, Snoozles," Toph said fiercely, and I heard a gasp from my sister. I sighed, my head still down. There was nothing I could do now. I didn't blame Toph in the slightest. I would have had to explain my injuries eventually. Fine, let's get this over with. I slowly got to one knee, and then I hesitantly rose to my full height and pulled back my hood. The buzzing of the crowd became the roar of an angry hornets' nest, but I only cared about the reaction of three people. I looked up as fast as I dared and met Toph's eyes first. She was smiling that wicked confident grin that made me feel apprehensive and high as the clouds all at once. I took my hair clip from her carefully.

I smiled and curtly nodded to her once before I pulled my hair back and tied it into its usual wolf tail. Once I looked like myself again -at least from the neck up- I let my eyes move to the others.

Katara still looked like she was conflicted between feeling amazed, angry, frustrated and proud all at once. Aang just looked like someone had walked up and slapped him one good.

"Guess the secret's out, huh?" I asked still trying to hold a grin and failing miserably, my senses still locked on Senchi behind me. "Please say something."

The buzzing built and the hatred toward my own weakness boiled up inside me. I was weak, and I had failed. The crowd and the Soudatsu officials didn't know it yet, but both Senchi and I knew I was done for. That's probably why he wasn't attacking me right now; he was letting me have a few seconds of being a hero to the ones that meant something to me.

It burnt inside me. This was my only chance to be their hero, to be their strength. I was no great and powerful line of defense; I was a weak and scared little boy who couldn't even protect the ones I cared for. I was going to fail here just like I failed at everything else. My father had been forced to fight a war, and I wasn't old enough or strong enough to fight by his side. My mother they died because I wasn't strong enough to protect her. Suki is gods know where because I had been a weak, stupid boy. Yue had _died_ because I wasn't strong enough. I was _never _strong enough, never smart enough, I always failed and _other_ people always paid for my mistakes.

I could not watch the last three people that I cared about starve and possibly die because I was too weak; not again. I wanted to fight and get the means to secure the coming months. But when you are as powerless as I am you must give _everything_ to gain even the smallest amount of ground, and even that was no guarantee that you'd get anywhere.

No, I growled to myself. I am weak and I am useless, but I _will _get the money for them if it's the last thing I do. It might not have been an entirely sane line of thought, but I felt my mind and perception lock into place like a perfectly crafted machine, clear and calm for the first time since I entered the ring. I am Sokka, and no force on this world will hurt anyone else I care for as long as I draw breath.

I was so caught up in my dark thoughts I barely noticed that my breath was misting before my face like it would on a crisp and cold night. It was impossible, the sun was high and the air was stiflingly hot, the sweat trickling down my back was tribute to that. Yet my clearing perception wasn't lying; my breath was still visible.

"Sokka, are you okay? You look really angry," said Katara when she finally got over the initial shock of seeing me in this costume.

"Sokka?" asked Aang looking a little worried.

"I'm too weak," I said in a shaking voice. But it wasn't exactly my voice, and it did not shake because I was scared, but because of something else I couldn't describe. It _felt_ like my voice was shaking because there were countless other voices trapped inside my throat trying to be heard, a thousand _whispers_ trying to speak.

"I'm too weak to protect you, to provide for you. I entered this tournament to get the money and now I am going to fail and your all going to pay for it."

"Sokka, we'll get by." My sister said in her motherly voice, her face now calm, controlled and ... forgiving. "Just concede the match before you get hurt."

She was forgiving me, forgiving me for not being strong enough to protect them. "I took half our money to enter this tournament. I can't lose." I said, trying to make her see that I wasn't worthy of forgiveness. Especially since I hadn't, and couldn't, forgive myself.

Her face fell a little bit in surprise, but she quickly recovered. "It's okay, you did your best. Now please come out, we're worried about you." I looked over to Aang and saw the same forgiveness in his face. I tracked over to Toph's beautiful misty eyes and got a shrug of indifference. Not a shrug on whether or not she forgave me; the shrug said that I should keep on fighting if I wanted to. I could see in her face that she had long ago forgiven me for taking the money and lying to them.

They forgave me now, but what about a month down the line when we were all hungry and there was nothing to eat. _Would they still forgive me then_?

Yes, they would, we were family.

That admission hurt more than any angry words they could shout at me right now. They would always forgive me without a seconds thought, because they would _always_ believe I did everything in my power to protect and forgive _them_. I felt the hot sting of unshed tears of pain, but I refused to be weak anymore. I brushed them away, never caring that they froze on my finger tips.

_When you're weak, you must give everything to gain a little ground._

I gripped my black sword hard in my hands, not caring as spider frost crept down the blade. I looked into each of their eyes, drawing strength. I looked at Toph last, letting the last of my self-doubt ebb away.

"_I am the line_." I whispered, countless voices echoing in my head. I turned my away from my family and faced Senchi once more.

His face was still emotionless, but now it looked different. It was like I was looking at a painting of a person. It was as if I were staring at a demon with the transparent film of a human draped over it. I pause for an instant, just staring at him. Since I had been a little boy I had always had these little feeling in fights telling me to duck or dodge, to move in certain ways. When I got into a great spar it was almost as if they guided my hands at times. I had always called it my warrior's instinct; at least that was what my father had said I was probably feeling. But now, they were stronger then they had ever been before.

It was as if they were waking up.

I heard the gang call from behind me. I heard them with crystal clarity and they were telling me to forfeit; but I didn't listen. I valued their opinions above all else, but I couldn't quit now. I would apologize later, but right now I had a championship to win.

I bolted at Senchi, my feet sinking into the hard earth with each step. His eyes went wide with fear for a spit second before I was right in his face. I dropped in under his first strike and managed to put a small cut on his shoulder to match mine.

His attacks seemed slower than last time, a lot slower. I deflected several of his thrusts before kicking his legs out from beneath him. I brought my blade down in a blow that would have stopped an inch from his throat just before he managed to twist away in a way that was impossible. My racing mind cataloged his movement with precision. If you knew anything about the human spine, he _should_ have just paralyzed himself. Some detached part of my mind idly wondered what the hell was going on here. I followed him and was there waiting for him when he rose back up, using his momentum gained to bring one of his scimitars slashing at my hands.

I pulled back and let him get to his feet before coming in fast again. My arms shook with the shocks of a dozen fail thrusts and blows, but every strike was now being delivered by me. Poor little Senchi was barely able to keep up let alone put up an offense. And then he surprised me by bending his elbow backwards to try to slash at my left wrist. I dodged of course, but the strange maneuver on both of our parts ended up with me having my back to him.

I was facing the gang again, and felt a little flash of pride at the looks I was getting. It wasn't fear; it was wonder and amazement, the looks of a proud family. Suddenly I remembered that I had my back to Senchi, but all was still good, I had only spent a fraction of a second looking and Senchi was still lining up his next slow strike. My mind got back into the fight and I didn't have time to turn around to face my opponent before both of his blades started chopping at me like a mad lumberjack.

I was facing away from my opponent, not able to see him at all. But I heard the shriek of metal through the air, and the grunts of exertion from him and it was little effort to know the positions of his blades.

Calculations ran through my head faster than I would have ever thought possible, but I understood everything and responded in kind. My single, larger bladed sword whirled around my body in a tornado of blindingly impossibly speed, deflecting every strike Senchi executed with his twin blade. I could feel the smallest variations in the air currents when Senchi tried to send a thrust at my unprotected back, but I did something even I didn't know I could. I dislocated my shoulder and let my warrior instincts take over and made the parry before the distant pop of my shoulder going back in signaled my chance to turn back to face my opponent.

I felt my unnatural calm deepen, my mind so much clearer than I had ever felt before, and I stared unflinching and unsurprised into the cross shaped pupils of blood red eyes as he stumbled back from the force of my last parry. I came in fast once more, my eyes not leaving his face even when the writhing tendrils of what was once his hair appeared to my eyes. I knew in some deep part of me that only I could see this side of Senchi, the rest of the audience was still blinded by his seeming. The foolish child should know better than to operate in the open like this. He would no doubt compromise himself if we allowed this to continue.

I planted my sword between his legs and reached out with my bare hands. I gripped the hilts of his scimitars and tore them both from his hands and planted them blade first in the dirt before kicking out both of his knees. My uninjured arm shot out and I grabbed him by his medusa-hair and jerked straight down. I held his neck against the grounded blade of my black sword and I smiled. The sun seemed so distant at that moment, the world gray and clouded. Only he and I stood there, and I felt a profound sense of _between_. We were between heartbeats, between earth and sky, sun and moon. I looked at Senchi and I felt very tired and old, much older than I'd ever felt before in my life.

"_You've overstepped yourself child," _I whispered. Spidery frost clung to his neck where my fingers dug into the far too hard skin. For the first time his face broke into a true expression; one of awed terror.

To me it was an eternity before the world caught up to us in a screaming shockwave of sound and color. With the fight over my warriors instinct started to pull back and the demon under my blade returned to being the sharp faced man I had meet minutes beforehand. I was aware of the announcer declaring me the new Soudatsu champion, but everything was starting to spin around my clouded head and already what I had seen was fading from my mind. I desperately tried to keep everything straight, but I was so tired and it seemed so distant.

I released Senchi's hair and pulled my blade from the ground and away from my opponent's neck and tried to help him up, but I was having trouble feeling my fingers. I wasn't like they were numb, it was more like when you're falling asleep and all of the aches and pains of the day retreated to the back of your mind.

I looked over to where the gang had been standing and saw that they had jumped the barrier and were running at me, actually most of the first few rows of fans had jumped the barrier and were running toward me and Senchi, screaming and cheering.

Speaking of Senchi, I turned back to him with the intentions of shaking his hand in the spirit of good sportsmanship. But I couldn't seem to get my mouth to work and the edges of my vision started to darken. Senchi stood in front of me looking terrified, visibly shaking. He said something I couldn't make out and took a step back from me before tripping over his oven feet and falling onto his back. I asked him if he was okay and was about to help him up when something caught my eye.

On the other side of the arena two figures sat just in front of the barrier and watched me. One was that stupid, creepy kitty that kept trying to burn me or scare me into a grave, and she looked sad or upset about something. How a cat can look upset I have no idea, but she did. Next to her, towering over her tiny grayness was a huge white wolf, smiling at me with a slightly demonic doggie grin.

I turned away from them, my foggy mind hoping that I could outrun them until I saw the man standing as far away from the two hairy monsters as he could but still be in the ring. It was Mouretsu, and he looked happy as he said something to me, but I couldn't make it out. I was so tired, and the world wouldn't stop moving around. I stumbled, trying to get the ground to stay in one place. I saw the gang rushing toward me, red faced and screaming something right before the ground came at me very fast.

-

"Sokka."

Katara?

"Sokka, wake up."

Was that Aang?

"_Snoozles get up!_"

"Bloody hell," I cried as I sat upright, trying to figure out what was going on.

I was lying in a bed, a bed that smelled like sterilizing cleaners and medicine. I looked around the small room. There were four beds positioned in each of the four corners of what I now saw was a white tent. There were several carts of various needles, little jars of vaccines and medications as well as _loads_ of bandages. On one wall -obviously, put there to also be seen from outside- was a large red cross.

Was I in a hospital tent, how did I get here?

It was then that I realized I wasn't alone. A grandmotherly looking lady, easily in her fifties gently turned my head to her and shined a flare of white hot light from her hands in both of my pupils. The light was a little painful, and as I still had no idea as to why I was in here, I was a little scared.

"Sokka, it's okay. She's here to help you." Following the voice I met Katara's soft and worried eyes. I let the old lady pull my head back to her when she tried again a moment later. Soon after she finished with my eyes she checked my ears.

"He doesn't appear to have a concussion," She said. Then she felt around my left shoulder, the one I had popped out during the fight. "His shoulder was dislocated recently."

Is he okay?" asked Toph. I noticed even she looked a_ little_ worried, and considering her '_I'm not weak_' attitude she usually had I must have worried them quite a bit. Next to her Aang looked about ready to explode. Yeah, I must have gotten them pretty worried.

"He'll be fine, deary," said the doctor, not seeing Toph's look of annoyance at the name. I hardly even noticed when the doctor rotated my arm forward and pulled, but I sure as flaming hell noticed when a loud crack made me gasp in pain. "It's alright now young man, your arm was still a little out of place."

I nodded and tried to look like it didn't affect me, but it had hurt, I don't remember it hurting when I had popped it in and out during the match. The next thing I knew Katara was trying to strangle me. Not literally, though she seemed close.

"Sokka, you idiot! Why did you keep on fighting when we told you to stop!? You could have been hurt a lot worse!"

"I know, I'm sorry," I said rubbing her back and silently asking Aang for help. He came over and pulled Katara back into her chair.

"You really scared us when you passed out after the fight," she continued. I knew it was futile but I just kept telling her I was sorry and that I'm fine now. After about ten minutes of this she seemed to start to get it; and by then the doctor had said I was fine to leave granted that I keep my arm in a sling for a few days to keep the strain off of the shoulder and let it rest.

"I know how tournaments work," Toph said after the doctor was done with her work, and had wandered out. "We're gonna have a damn screaming mob on our hands. Could you two go on ahead and see if you could scout us a path of least resistance through the fangirls?"

Aang grinned a little, but there was something nervous in his expression as he looked at me. "Alright. We'll take a look."

He grabbed Katara's arm and she reluctantly walked out. Toph let her wry expression lapse into one of concern. Her unseeing eyes stared at where they had walked. "That was something else, Snoozles. I've never 'seen' anything like that before. I could only track you half of the time. It was almost like Twinkletoes; like half the time you weren't even touching the ground."

I felt a strange sense of fear at her intense expression and soft words. "But it was different, you know. With Twinkletoes it's more of a feeling of springiness, I guess. You… were something else. It was almost like you were there one moment, and not the next. I've never seen anything like that before in my entire life, and I've 'seen' a lot."

The suspicion in her voice was unlike anything that I had heard from her before. "That wasn't the strangest thing though. Right before you turned away, you said something to us. Something in a language I'd never heard before. It was so quiet that I barely heard it, but it was there. What the hell is going on with you Snoozles?"

It was the matter of fact question and tone that made me feel the worst. The two of us sat in a muffling silence.

"I don't know," I whispered finally. "I just did what I had to do."

I was very surprised when she smirked. "At least you ain't a liar. Okay, but there are two things. One, your sister and Twinkletoes are suspicious too, so watch out. Second, you know when you want to talk, I'll be around."

"Thanks," I said as I sat up. "When I know what to tell you you'll be the first to know."

"I'll accept that," she said, offering a hand and hauling me to my feet with surprising force. We walked back out into the daylight a short while later, my right arm in a white sling and their seemed to be no shortage of people wanting to shake my hand or get an autograph. I signed and shook as much as I could left handed while Katara and Toph growled at anyone who came to close or got too friendly, and there were a few of both. I was both flattered and a little scared at the number of cute girls introducing themselves. I shrugged it off as an after effect of my fifteen minutes of fame brought on by the championship. So I was as polite as I could be while Toph and my sister helped the fame seekers find their way to other places, sometimes with a little more venom then was needed.

Aang seemed to be having a little too much fun as he watched me battle through the crowd of adoring fans who had never met me but wanted to touch me for some unknown creepy reason. I guess this is what Aang went through a lot of the time when people knew he was the avatar. I could see how it could be a little bothersome, but he was enjoying this _way _toomuch.

Finally we had pretty much shaken the worst of the followers, although a few still trailed at a safe enough distance, mostly in fear of the two protective women. It is times like this -and I'm sure Aang feels this way too- that a guy just feels emasculated. I needed to do manly things again. I wondered if Aang wanted to arm wrestle and talk about sports?

"Good to see you're up and around, Rin and Shoji were very worried about you." I turned and saw Yoten in front of his little cart of cloths. The match had ended an hour before and he had obviously been attending, but here he was back trying to make enough money to make sure his little girls could get by. I smiled at him. I never realized we were so alike.

"Nice to see you again. Honestly, how did I look in there?" Almost out of my eyesight Katara gave Aang a questioning nod toward Yoten, Aang just shrugged also confused.

"I think Shoji is still talking about how fast you were, even Rin seemed to really get into it," he said. The he looked pointedly at my sling. "Are you okay, you went down pretty hard at the end there?"

"Yeah, I'm fine now. I guess I just got too much adrenalin pumping."

Yoten grunted a response and nodded, clearly thinking that there was more to the story than what I was telling him; but being kind enough to not pursue it any further. "So, what are you going to do now?"

"Not too sure yet," I said honestly. "You?"

"Well, assuming that I can make enough gold by the end of summer, I was thinking about taking the girls and moving out to a Fire-Nation colony. You know like Ba Sing Se, or somewhere like that." He said all of this was a sly smirk, making me grin and Toph snort. Of course Aang and Katara were still completely out of the loop. Then an idea struck me. We needed almost all of the gold that I had won, but I think I knew a way for Yoten to make some money and for me to get a few of these fame seeking flies off of my back.

"Anyways, Yoten. I was thinking that this mask would just get in the way when traveling. Don't get me wrong, it's finely crafted and still functional, I just don't have the room," I said loud enough for the creeping horde at my back to hear.

Yoten looked a little confused for a moment, until he took a long look at the rabid pack of 'people' approaching interestedly. "You sure you want me to sell it to them?" he asked hushed.

"Yep, and you get everything- "

"I can't," Yoten said quickly, although still quiet enough for the mob not to hear.. "I may have made the mask, but you made it famous."

"I got a five hundred gold piece first prize; this one's yours my friend. Just promise me you will use it your get your family out of this place," I replied, grinning.

Yoten smiled widely at me, and nodded gratefully. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

"Alright, how much would you like for it," he asked, loud enough for the mob to hear. By now they were uncomfortably close and I could have sworn Toph was growling at them.

"Three copper," I declared digging the scarred mask from the inside of my tattered gray robes. We exchanged coppers and before I had even placed the few coins in my pocket the first bids were going in for the mask. Within a matter of a few moments the bidding had reached forty gold and rose quickly. Not too soon after that the enforcers appeared to keep the mob under control the bid passed two hundred gold.

Feeling like I should take my leave, I gave one last friendly nod to Yoten who graciously returned it before I turned and followed Katara back to our camp.

-

"Do you trust this man?" asked Katara as we walked through the town just before sundown, to go and meet with Salazar. I had told her the truth about everything, even my admission of being a Watertribesman to Yoten -she had flipped at that- and she had insisted that all four of us go to meet Salazar to see what he wanted.

"Yes, I wouldn't tell him anything that would jeopardize Aang; but I think he is a good man."

"Katara stop worrying, I met him and he was fine," said Toph, walking just to my right. My stomach jumped when her hand unexpectedly brushed mine, but I don't think I gave it away

The Herring bar came into view and my sister was still worrying about nothing, at least I thought it was nothing until I noticed the half dozen Fire-Nation soldiers milling around outside the bar. I shifted my shoulders slightly, making it look like I had been hurt in the tournament worse then I really was, weaker and less of a threat.

I must admit Katara was good, she continued to rant on about me being an idiot while her hands inconspicuously popped open the top of the small water skin she had attached to the shoulder bag she carried. I think she had brought some food in it, not sure on the reliability of the cuisine in this bar. Aang stopped talking and pretended to focus on what Katara was saying even though I could tell his full attention was on the soldiers. Next to me Toph straightened up a little and started to walk a little stronger. We all shifted into battle readiness smoothly without tipping off the soldiers; hopefully.

I could see no other threats in the immediate area, they couldn't really think that six soldiers could take up down. As we drew closer all of the soldiers snapped salutes and stood at attention. I froze and my surprise was evident on my face. I glanced at the others and found similar confusion. I looked back when I heard the crunching of dirt under boots and found that one of the solders had approached to a respectful distance.

"Mister Brenton, Captain Salazar is expecting the four of you."

You could have heard a pin drop right then. Almost as one we moved back to back, a four way defense of total destruction. He had said four, the only one I had introduced him to was Toph. He shouldn't know that there were four of us. I glared hard at the soldier, wondering what was going on.

"There is one person in the bar, and aside from the six goons right here there is no one near," whispered Toph from behind me. What were they playing at?

"Mister Brenton, Captain Salazar wishes you no ill-intentions. He is waiting inside and alone to speak with you on a very delicate matter. We do not mean you any harm." The soldier insisted, as I watched him with a critical eye. I could pick up none of the signs of lying, but I wasn't too good at it yet. He was telling the truth, or at least he believed he was.

I looked over to Katara standing on my left and Aang with his back to her, "Well?"

"We can crush them if they try anything." Top growled in her usually fashion and it took a lot of my will power not to smile.

"I agree," my sister mumbled, her eyes still locked on those on front of us. "We go in carefully."

Aang had no argument, so as one -still watching our backs- we walked slowly toward the building. The soldiers parted and backed off to a safe distance. One of them seemed to start with sudden realization and took a few more steps back, eying Toph fearfully. I was getting both interested and scared. I opened the door and stepped into the room before the others, stopping right in the doorway so that they couldn't come in until I thought it was safe.

The bar was small and dark, the kind of place you'd expect to see a burnt out man with no future drinking away his remaining days. The walls were papered in bad woodland scenery that was peeling off in many places. The booths were grimy and the tables in the middle of the room looked like they had been used as weapons in bar fights one too many times. The floor looked like it hadn't seen water in years and the whole place smelled a little moldy. It was the kind of place you'd expect an important conversation to be carried out in secret, especially since the owners had obviously been shuffled out very quickly not an hour ago.

Salazar stood behind the bar, in front of the rows of dusty bottles and the cracked mirror pouring himself another shot. In front of him he had built a long wall of empty shot glasses going from the empty peanut bowl to the clumpy salt shaker. It looked safe enough, if a little seedy.

I said so to the rest of the gang and after getting the all clear from Toph we walked in and approached Salazar.

"Brenton my boy!" roared the obviously drunk man. "It's good to see you again."

"Hello Salazar, mind telling us what you wanted to talk about?"

Salazar downed his shot and poured another from a bottle with the label ripped off before answering. "It sure brings back memories, seeing you all ready for a fight. It was the first time I had ever seen you, did you know that Brenton? I could have sworn you looked familiar the first time I saw you without a mask on. But it was her that finally gave it away." He pointed a shaky finger at Toph. "I thought you looked familiar, but you were the thinker behind the lines weren't you, it was the other three doing the heavy lifting."

"What are you talking about?" I asked as my left hand inched to touch the hilt of my sword, I could feel the fear rising in my throat like bile as he talked.

"I was just a Sergeant back then, in command of a small security team when we got handed our worst defeat ever. Some of the men under my command now were from that first team, but only a few of them might recognize you." He drank the shot he had poured a moment before and fixed himself another. "You attacked so fast and hard most of them never got a look at you, but I did. Of course I had to lie; how would it look for the security chief of the Drill project to have been completely defeated by two Waterbenders and small Earthbender and the Ava-"

I never gave him the chance to finish. While Katara gasped when Salazar mentioned the two Waterbenders I hooked my right foot under the chair right in front of me. When Toph stiffened as Salazar spoke of a small Earthbender I kicked the chair at him as hard as I could. And before he could finish saying anything about the avatar I had drawn my black sword with my left hand and thrown myself over the bar in a shower of shattering glasses. I landed hard on Salazar, pushing the air from his lungs but didn't stop there. By the time he knew what was going on I had my sword pressed so tight against his neck it was drawing a few drops of blood.

I turned my head just enough so that I could keep most of my attention on Salazar while checking on the gang. Aang had gotten what seemed like a broom handle and was holding it like he did his staff, Toph facing the door like a crouching tiger and Katara was right beside me, all of the water in her skin held between her hands like a ball of struggling serpents.

And then he laughed drunkenly, the raspy sound echoing painfully in the silent room. "I see you all still got it. But please know that you have nothing to worry about."

"Oh and why is that?" spat Katara. I agreed with her, but my attention was ensnared for a tense moment. The few drops of blood that had been drawn out of Salazar vibrated in time with Katara's voice, and there was no way she could be close enough for that to happen naturally. Shaking it off I turned my full attention to Salazar who instead of answering reached -slowly, as to not agitate us- into his pocket and drew out a white lotus Pia Sho in answer.

"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked evenly.

"This means that I think the war is wrong, that all of the people being hurt and killed in it are being wronged. This tile means that I, and my men are glad to see that reports of _his_ death were greatly exaggerated by the people who want to keep this war going," said Salazar nodding in Aang's direction.

"If you even try to hurt them I will teach you everything I know about pain," growled Katara in a voice I had never heard her use before. I risked a quick glance over to her and was fearful of the hate and cold that rested in her once loving eyes.

"I have no intention of hurting anyone or turning you in. I am here to help."

"And how are you going to do that?" hissed Katara leaning closer to Salazar who actually looked a little afraid.

"I am here to help all of the people that are going to die in Ba Sing Se because of Princess Azula." Katara looked like she still wanted to gut Salazar but I shot her a look that said to hold back.

"Let's hear what you have to say," I said to Salazar.

"My squad, as well as many others, is getting reassigned in the coming week to Ba Sing Se to try to do something about the resistance movement going on there right now. Princesses Azula has been informed of this and she is also going with a small army of her choosing. Once there she will take full control of all armed forces and try to gain control over the people over any means necessary."

"And what are you going to do about this?" I asked, watching his eyes for signs of deception.

"Including me there are seven members of the White Lotus Society in my squad. We plan on losing our maps and leading the others on a roundabout path in the woods, never reaching Ba Sing Se."

"What is this White Lotus Society you're talking about?"

"That I cannot tell you about, I am merely a low ranking member; a master or higher is needed to induct new members and only members can know the secrets. But I can say that the tile you got is one of ours, and that Piando is one of our high ranking members."

I wasn't sure if I believed all of what Salazar was saying, but if it was true and Piando-sensei was a member of this society then I _might_ be willing to place my trust in them.

"What about this resistance, what do you know about it?"

"Not much, we have no idea who their leaders are or what their exact intentions are. All we know for sure is that they seem to have a nearly unstoppable soldier that calls himself the 'Iron Titan'. He is on most of their raids and always shows up when the resistance forces are losing a fight. He wears a full suit of the strangest armor that anyone has ever seen, fights like ten men and no man has ever been able to take him down."

"I see," I said quietly. I was going to have to mull this over. We all had to decide what to do now. If Salazar was lying this could all be a trap, but if he was telling the truth...

"Let's go," I said, taking my sword from Salazar's throat and re-sheathing it.

"We're leaving?" asked Toph. Many questions were in those two little words, but we were not prepared to deal with the fallout of any of them.

"Yes."

Then I silently led them out of the dank bar, leaving Salazar behind. Once we got outside the pale soldiers who were no doubt listening to what was going on inside, snapped quickly to attention and stood proudly until we passed.

* * *

Tournament Saga

End

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**No, it is not the end of the story; there are still many, many chapters to go before we even near that.**... it is the end of the saga. For those of you who don't know what a saga is; it's like a Chapter for chapters... it allows me to group events that span several chapters or more together easily... think _story arc_. 

-

Knight: Bet I caused a few heart attacks with that... huh Richard?

Richard: Your a monster.

Knight: So are you.

Richard: (sighs) Yeah.

-

* * *

I am compiling all of the Sokka Chapters together into a separate story called "The Story of Sokka: Uninterrupted". I will be asking Richard if he wants to do the same thing with his Mai chapters... if he agrees they will both be up shortly with links on my profile page. 

This is being done for those people who might want to read one of the characters straight through.

What are your thoughts on this? please reply in a review.

* * *

The Jade Knight - Richard Caine

Please Read & Review

Check out the Foum!


	9. Saturnine

Disclaimer: We do not own anything except the original plot lines... now, I must go do battle with my penguin...

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_Authors Note:_ Ello people! Alright no doubt by now you have realized that this is a Mai chapter... for those of you who want more consecutive Sokka or Mai chapters I'm afraid that this business of me and Richard taking turns with chapters is the only thing holding our weekly updates together.. there will be a time in the near future that Richards story line will have progressed father then mine.. and in that event we may be forced to roll back to a bi-weekly update... not that I don't love this story.. just with life piling up I need 7-10 days to write my chapters... and thats not counting the time it takes Richard to Beta. I'm not trying to worry you, this story will live on... it just might slow down here and there and I'm warning you now. 

And for those of you who loved Sokka's little ..._ i__ncident_ last chapter... there is lots more coming... some very soon!

-Till next time

-the Two Handsome Hosts

-

**Remember to check out the forum!**

**-**

-**Curtain Up!**

* * *

**Sokka: Master of the Black Sword**

By: Richard Caine

Creative Consultant: Jade Knight

* * *

**-Resistance Saga-**

**Chapter 9**

-

The Story of Mai

Part 3: Saturnine

-

Our wonderful vacation to the beaches had illustrated something to me very clearly. The hidden stresses on Zuko and me were growing stronger. Our little spat had hurt a great deal, and though I guess we made up for it, the gap between us kept widening. I knew that there was some decision that was driving Zuko crazy. From my revelation, I knew that betraying his uncle had cost him dearly. I also knew now that due to the fact that he was a genuinely good human being, he was probably going to do something… stupid. I actually wished I had enough of his confidence that he would trust me. Some analytic part of my soul knew that there was really only one way to deal with this, and that was with the truth.

Of course, that was out of the question, for both of us. I knew that Azula was effectively using me to ensure Zuko's good behavior. It hadn't bothered me that much before, but it was starting to get on my nerves.

Still, it was strange, because as far away as I felt from him, I also felt a deeper sense of connection. We were a stable thing in each others lives now. I'd never noticed it happening, but there it was. When he challenged me to feel, he had no idea how much feeling for me meant the kind of pain that was starting to drive him crazy. Somehow, though, I _wanted_ to feel more now than I ever had before. I'd begun to discover a Gel-Hassad truism; the more you express, the less the pain bothers you. So there I was, paradox girl. There was the distance and the closeness all wrapped up together. It was strange, it was awkward, and it was wonderful. I'd honestly never felt so worried and so happy at once in my life. Even with the weight of the revelation from a week before on my shoulders, the distance seemed to lessen the hurt and the terror I'd felt that night. Perhaps I was deluding myself, but I hardly cared now.

On top of my admittedly teenage relationship nonsense, I was also frustrated by the attempt on my brother's life. Every evening I followed up on the matter, but I was getting nowhere with it. It was as if the place that my captive had mentioned didn't exist. Oh, the tavern itself was real enough; but the back room he'd described was either extremely well hidden or nonexistent.

Weeks of effort had been wasted trying to apprehend any of the men described by the assassin. My father's elite guard answered only to him, and through him to his current heir's regent; me. They had been extremely cooperative. There were also other contacts, which I'd been loath to approach. However, this was becoming ludicrous. That meant I would have to rely upon another kind of connection; the family kind.

I checked my outfit for the fourth time. It was hardly something I'd wear under normal circumstances, but I wanted to go unnoticed in a part of town that someone as publicly visible as a governor's daughter wouldn't be caught dead going into. The kimono had much fewer under layers than I was used to, and frankly not having my chest bound securely was a decided pain in the neck. I secured the front bow and arranged finished arranging the loops of my hair and put on my best false smile behind a fan.

Yup; sadly enough I made a very convincing prostitute.

I opened the door to the merchant quarter safe house and walked onto the busy streets. No one could ever mistake the beautiful if aloof looking 'lady of the night' with the prudish governor's daughter of the upper levels. I wound my way through the crowds, playfully swatting aside most of the passes that were made towards me as I wandered in a seemingly aimless way towards my actual target, the _Painted Lilly. _

The doorman gave me a look as I sauntered up and giggled at him. God I hated this part. He was an ugly brute of a man, tall and covered in greasy unwashed muscle; the perfect man for the job.

"The club's closed for the evening," he said. He leered at me a little, taking in what skin I exposed. "And I'm not interested in what you're selling."

I giggled and leaned forward cocking my head to the side. "If you don't let me in I'll tell Jai Roh that you wouldn't let me past. If you're lucky he'll just dock your pay. Unlucky and you'll never have the urge to look at a girl again."

I put my hand against the side of my face and kept my seductive pose. When he saw the black ring on my finger his eyes widened. "My apologies, I had no idea."

He stepped back and opened the door. I sashayed in and felt the heavy thrum of instruments and the scents of opium, sweat, and sex. It was a uniquely unpleasant smell. Still, I'd been here before, and I carefully picked my way over the bodies sprawled on cushions all around me. Most were calmly smoking their pipes or eating Fire Lotus. A few had abandoned their pipes for more amorous behavior. I shut it out of my perception as I pulled aside the beaded curtain on the far wall. It slid aside to reveal a mountain of a man sitting on a cushion. He wore his hair up in the typical fire nation fashion, and he wore an open coat and loose Earth Kingdom breeches. He was surrounded by a group of at least six other people. Two of these were obviously supposed to be floozies. They were barely dressed and the basked at his feet like captured slaves. I knew better of course; I'd trained both of them how to be assassins. The other four I didn't know. I blinked my eyes quickly, both eyelids and his body language changed instantly. All pretense of expression dropped from everyone in the room and I nodded to him. He returned it; good everyone here was clear.

"Yegoth still stands in her people's hearts," I intoned the greeting of the Gel-Hassad.

"Indeed it does," replied the man. This opium den was one of the places that The People used to congregate in the city. My distant cousins operated this particular 'establishment'. It would probably be court scandal for most to learn that relatives of the Jin Xiao family operated the largest drug and prostitution ring in the Capital. Of course, at least we weren't out there committing the hideous war crimes of some families. There was a certain amount of decency and respect in our 'bath houses' that the Zhao family's internment and 'entertainment' camps lacked. Like payment for services rendered or consent of all participants.

And they called _us_ monsters. It almost brought a smirk to my lips; hypocrites.

"We are honored, but surprised, to see you've journeyed to see us," continued my cousin. "Your mother was most insistent that we not… jeopardize her position. The Elders thought it too important to the cause."

"It is, cousin Bei Fong," I said. "However, an incident occurred which has caused us to question the relative safety of our position."

I gave a pointed look around the room. Jai Roh Bei Fong made a circular gesture with his hands. Two men and one woman gave a blink of their inner sclera, revealing their Gel Hassad heritage, and they took up an assembly of instruments and began to play. They were actually quite good. Just loud enough to make a whispered conversation unheard, but quiet enough that it didn't disturb the dynamic of the opium house. My assessment of Cousin Jai Roh's agents had risen.

I began without anymore preamble, passing him a scroll with all of the information I'd acquired so far in my search. "Twenty days ago there was an attempt on my life and that of my baby brother Tom-Tom. A professional assassin team; eight of them, came into _my_ home and assaulted us. I was lucky enough to be home at the time, and they won't trouble anyone anymore, but I have not been able to track the source of the problem and it is something I cannot simply allow to fester. Anyone who strikes at The People deserves our talons through their guts."

Jai Roh looked both shocked and insulted by what I'd said, his Gel-Hassad impassiveness giving way to an expression of anger. He must have been quite pissed to endure the agony that his unique facial expression would cause. "They broke the sanctity of your home?"

"Yes," I replied. I leaned forward and uncovered my eyes, sighing. "In addition, it was not merely a kill strike. It was retrieval. They had orders to bring in my brother alive and my corpse for study if possible. Someone, or something, wants to unmask us. Unacceptable; this is the heart of the problem. I need to find their bankrollers. You have control of The People's assets in the Capital. Set them on our enemy. Anyone who would dissect one of our children has to die; in a very painful way."

By this time, cousin was worked into a proper fury. When he straightened up, I was surprised by both his height and his physical condition. He looked as though he could throw a tank. Maybe even could in his true form. "As you will my lady, I will set my best agents on this case. The resources of The People are at your disposal for this task."

I stood and gave him a forward bow. When I straightened, I relaxed my face slightly. "Just find them Jai Roh. I'm tired of hunting them. I'll take care of the rest."

Jai Roh's poise was feral and alert. "Don't worry cousin. We will."

-

When I arrived back at my house, I quickly took to my own chambers. I hoped Jai Roh would be able to figure out what had eluded me. After that chat, he'd probably mobilized the many agents of the People in the Capital. I'd taken the time to change and try to clean off the worst of the scents from the den at the safe house, so I was running a little later than I would have liked. I was supposed to meet Zuko in a few hours for a late lunch. I unsealed the locks on my door and opened it, my thoughts wandering to my potential outfits.

"Hello old friend," Azula said. My head snapped around to see the Princess sitting on a chair next to the door. How the hell had she done that?

"Hey," I said, deciding to play the friend card. "Nice trick."

"Thanks," she said with her vicious smirk. "I have some news for you."

I nodded for her to continue.

"Father has found, to his irritation, that Ba Sing Se has become restful since we left. Apparently I was a better governor than the fool they have in place now. It's on the verge of a full blown rebellion. Even with the Dai Li and a full division deployed to the city, it's too massive to control that easily. At least, too easy to control in such an indulgently humane fashion as the current governor seems to want to do. This isn't one of our tame cities from 100 years ago who remember nothing but our rule."

I inhaled and rocked back on my feet. "So what's your dad want to do about it?"

"Suppression," Azula said, as if she were discussing flower arranging. "We're to go in with another division and crush the rebellion in as spectacular a manner as possible. We will be deploying six of the new heavy airships to get there as quickly as possible. Father doesn't want anyone to be able to take advantage of the eclipse to do some serious revolting. If any of those fools figured it out, and we know that at the very least the Avatar's companions knew, then we could be in for trouble. I want to bring you and Ty Lee as well."

"Alright," I said. "But why bring us? You'll have a full division."

"Shock and awe," she replied airily. She crossed her legs and leaned back in the chair. "Ty Lee is a perfect mix of disarming and dangerous. As for you, I don't know anyone who can cause fear as effectively as you can, other than me of course."

A psychopath had just complimented my intimidation skills. I felt slightly impressed and sick to my stomach at the same time. Mostly I was sick.

"What are you going to need us to do?" I asked quietly.

"Some extremely showy victories will be the perfect thing," she said. Her golden eyes gave off a feral glint. "Between that and a few well placed massacres, this should be a simple task."

"Is Zuko coming too?" I asked. She nodded.

"Daddy wants to test little ZuZu. I think he wishes to know if his son has acquired the appropriate virtues of a fire nation prince."

"Huh," I managed. It was times like this that I was glad for my facial inflexibility. "I think that you should leave Ty Lee and Zuko out of the population suppression."

"Really," she said in her usual drawl, but her eyes were alight with a dark curiosity. "Now why should I do that? We _do_ make a good team you know."

She was baiting me. I felt as ancient as the Old Ones in that moment. "Because it would break them; break them past the point of usefulness to you. And I know they're too useful to you at the moment for you to just throw them away. You just got back into your brother's good graces; make him kill civilians just to prove a point and you could lose that. I don't even think we need to speak about Ty Lee. Force her to kill innocent people and she would snap like a twig, no matter how deluded she is."

"I never thought I'd see the day," Azula mused, looking at me with a piercing gaze. I met her eyes without blinking. "Mai is caring about someone other than herself for a change. Very well, your arguments have weight. I'd rather not have my brother get an unfortunate case of stupidly moralistic behavior, and though I think you're underestimating Ty Lee, you do have a point. Her eccentricities make her unpredictable in a situation like this. You do know who this leaves the burden with, don't you Mai?"

"I do," I whispered.

"Good," she said. She gave me a winsome smile. "It was a pleasure as always. Give my regards to ZuZu. I haven't seen him much lately. He seems to be avoiding me for some reason. I can't imagine why. Oh, and you reek of opium and sex. Might want to talk to ZuZu about that… he might wonder where you've been."

She sashayed out of my room without even a glance back. I had to admit, she was a pompous bitch, but at least she had style. I sighed and fell forward onto my bed with an undignified flop. I wanted to scream into my pillow. It wasn't because of what she might have implied, or how she could have scented something I could barely detect with enhanced senses. She was just that good. It was the fact that every time I felt like I was getting my feet under me she kicked them out again.

This, I reflected, was why I stayed out of major league politics. You never knew when a psychotic tyrant would stop by and casually ask you to murder a few hundred people to make a point. I couldn't let Ty Lee or Zuko do this, or even learn who had done it. They would be shocked and angry about it, I was sure, but at least they wouldn't have to see the blood. It was times like this when I asked myself what I had become; and what I was willing to do to stay alive. The worst part was, I really didn't have an answer to either question.

-

"They made you take the sedan chair again didn't they?" I asked. Zuko turned his amused expression to me and shook his head. We were reclined on the couch, and I snuggled into his chest. His body had a wonderful kind of heat that I found hard to describe. When you've spent most of your life alone the way I had, contact with another person was like a guilty pleasure. Just snuggling was more important to me than I'd ever wanted to admit. I think it was to him too.

"I spent so long walking everywhere by myself that it just seems… stupid I guess," he said and sighed. "But it is fun to order them around every once in a while."

I said nothing but I curled up against his chest and ran my gloved hand down his flank. He kissed my forehead and sighed. "I can't believe he's sending us out again. I thought my sister had Ba Sing Se in an iron grip."

"I think they were in shock," I said. "But shock doesn't last forever, and Ba Sing Se is the biggest city on the planet. To think that they couldn't or wouldn't fight back is stupid. The Fire Lord knew that; and I think Azula did too."

"I wonder why she left then," he mused. I shrugged into his shoulder.

"She was there to capture the Avatar and bring you and Iroh in," I said. His spine stiffened and I immediately realized that my bluntness was a mistake. "Sorry, but it was what she got us for; with the Avatar dead, I guess, and Iroh in prison and you back home I think it's everything she set out to do. Maybe better in fact. Ba Sing Se was just a stepping stone."

"God," he whispered into my hair. I felt a great sense of desolation in his voice. "She's just that good isn't she? I used to hate her for it, you know? She was always better than me, always stronger, a prodigy. She's smarter, craftier, and more ruthless than I'll ever be. What do I have that she doesn't?"

"I don't love her," I said quietly. My own eyes widened at my speech. I nearly hit myself in the head. Zuko looked down at me with shock and a little fear. I could feel the stress of the moment causing the tips of my fingers to elongate their talons. Looking up into his eyes I saw a lot of different expressions flash across his face. I prayed to the Old Ones that he wouldn't notice my slip, but it didn't seem like he did. Indeed after his moment of shock he actually pulled me closer, and I buried my head in his shoulder.

I waited for a shout of outrage or some other outburst, but Zuko said nothing. He just held me close in the tense quiet.

"You don't have to say anything," I managed to croak. I didn't want him to lie to me… but some part of me really wouldn't have minded if he did. The instant that I said that, his grip tightened.

"That makes three," he whispered. I managed to move my head to look at him. He looked down at me with a blank expression. "You're one of only three people who ever said they loved me."

He looked away and his scarred face seemed heavy with emotion. "The only others either died for me or I betrayed."

I blinked my eyes. "Who were they?"

"Mother and Iroh," he said briefly. I'd found that I could get under his guard, but only for an instant and only if I didn't push. He reached down with one calloused hand and tilted my face up until we were level with one another. "That means more to me than I can say."

Our kiss was wet, tears trailing from both of our eyes as stress leeched from our bodies. But there was also a fierce hunger there that lit up a fire through my entire body. He broke the kiss and looked down at me.

"I love you too," he said, so quietly I almost couldn't hear it.

After that we didn't do a whole lot of talking.

-

"We have news mistress," Jai Roh bowed before me. I waved my hand and he stood tall and nodded. "This society that you have been seeking is embedded throughout the capital. Our agents have mapped much of its makeup. However, we have found no man exactly matching the description you stated."

"Interesting," I said. I turned to the fountain next to me and allowed my fingers to elongate into talons and played them through the water. "What is this organization's ostensible goal?"

"To change the Fire Nation from the inside, mistress," the Gel-Hassad agent said. "They desire a turn to the days before Sozin's comet. They preserve the old ways of the Fire Nation in hopes that the world will turn once again to sanity."

"Let us pray for our sakes that it does not," I said. Both of us knew the truth; the more distracted the elemental benders were, the less likely they would be able to detect our comings and goings, and the less likely they were to be able to stop us. "Why the interest in my family then?"

"That I cannot say," the agent replied. "We do not have any reason to suspect that the White Lotus even knows that we exist."

"Where can I find an agent of the Lotus?" I asked. Jai Roh smiled grimly.

"It is said that one of their grandmasters was taken prisoner as of late; by your companions no less."

"Iroh," I said quietly. The agent nodded.

"We agree with that assessment," he replied. "He is the highest ranking member we know of; and he cannot escape from you in a prison."

"Then I think it's time to pay Zuko's uncle a visit," I said, feeling tired. "Very well then; give my compliments to your men. They have done a commendable job in a short time frame. Your assistance won't be forgotten."

"As you say Mistress," the agent said and gave a deep bow.

After dismissing cousin Bei Fong, I returned to my chambers and suited up for a little bit of a nighttime stroll. My insertion suit wasn't much like my normal clothes at all. It was made of soft and dull black leather and it was tight enough to not catch on anything, but loose enough to move in freely. The back had two vertical slits in it, so that I could deploy my stabilizers without damaging the suit.

I strapped on a belt that contained some of my knives and strapped my heavy shuriken to my right hip. Hopefully I wouldn't need any of this. I also secured a pouch at my back that contained appropriate lock picking equipment and a few extra surprises in case I was made. I grabbed my larger supply pack and heavier tools, strapping them securely to my back. To complete the ensemble I pulled my hood up and wrapped a scarf around my lower face and tucked the ends into my hood. The only things anyone could see now were the bridge of my nose and my eyes.

I decided to cheat a little bit, slipping into my other form as I moved out onto the roof. The way that the Capital was constructed, it was crowded enough that a person with above average jumping ability could get through most of the city solely on the rooftops. In my natural form, I was more than strong enough to handle that.

I stopped short of the prison, spending a few minutes analyzing the structure. The approach to the tower was well lit and well guarded. The jailors had anticipated just about any kind of human approach to the tower. However, as I crept up the side of the caldera and looked down at the tower, I knew there was one thing they hadn't considered in its construction; the principal of flight.

I pulled out a staff, inspired by the work of the air nomads. I tapped the ends of the staff and a pair of flexible wings extended from the midsection. I was not an airbender, and as such the wings were much bigger than a nomad's glider, but the principal was the same, with a little twist of Gel-Hassad science. A storm spirit was bound within the spine of the glider, the runes carved into the ironwood glowing as I spoke the invocation prayer. It couldn't allow flight, exactly, but it did make the user a lot lighter. I probably weighed close to 175 pounds; I'm an athletic six foot tall girl with an exoskeleton, but with the glider I might have weighed twenty at most. I strapped on the contraption and looked down at the spire below me. What I was doing was risky, but Jai Roh agreed with me. If we could get something out of the old man, then maybe we'd have a better lead to follow. I closed my eyes and waited for the wind to blow in from the sea. It always did this time of night. When the wind current picked up I held the glider out and hung on for dear life as I was swept up and away from my hiding spot. I circled in the updraft until I was high enough to swoop in to the top of the tower.

I spotted a pair of guards standing on the courtyard rooftop of the prison spire. I pulled the first item out of my pouch as I examined my landing spot with a critical eye. I'd need to keep them off of me, and I'd always found that fire did the trick. As I passed overhead, I dropped the little cloth bag on a torch. It had the desired effect immediately, flaring into an all out blaze. The bag was instantly consumed leaving no evidence but a quickly spreading fire on the roof. The two guards predictably ran underneath me, and I swooped low towards the trapdoor into the prison, folding my glider as I landed. The sudden return of my weight caused me to shuffle a bit, and I nearly fell over, but I managed to make it across the rooftop without any more trouble. I swung open the roof hatch and threw myself down the stairs as fast and quietly as possible.

The interior of the prison was dimly lit. I once again allowed my body to change and I climbed up the wall onto the high ceiling. The gripping pads on my hands and the balls of my feet allowed me to hang just like a spider sloth, just waiting for someone to pass underneath.

I scurried along the ceiling. It turned out to be a good idea; I must have dodged at least three patrols before I made it to Iroh's cell. It was strange; there wasn't even extra guards posted here. The cell itself was a simple affair; an open doorway and then a decently sized room split in half by iron bars. It was far too simple to hold the Dragon of the West. He might well be the most dangerous person I knew other than Azula. This cell couldn't hold him unless he wanted to be held; interesting.

It was even more interesting when I poked my head silently around the archway to get a better look at him. He was doing situps while hanging upside down from his cell's skylight by his feet. His shirt was off, and I had never seen a man look so incredibly strong. Not even Jai Roh was that muscled. He looked like some sort of idealized sculpture of Agni as the Ancient Flame.

He instantly stopped, dangling from his feet. He couldn't have possibly heard me, and there was hardly any light to see by. I had to use my Gel Hassad eyes to see four feet in front of my face.

"Pardon me for being so rude," Iroh said. "But you are blocking my air."

I nearly cursed; of course. Deciding to go with an Azula style plan I went for shock and awe. I moved as fast as I could, moving across the ceiling faster than most could run, and dropping down to the ground silently. I hunched over and extended my stabilizers to make it much harder for him to judge my height.

"General," I rasped. "I see you've been using your vacation well."

He showed a remarkable lack of surprise for someone confronted with a storybook monster. Oh, his eyes widened and he allowed himself to fall, but he landed with a cat's grace and there was no panicking or yelling, nor the mindless fear I'd received whenever I'd used this for before.

"I am afraid you have me at a disadvantage," he said. "You must have gone out of your way to see me, but I do not know your name. Would you enlighten an old man?"

"No," I said. I rotated my neck until I was looking at him like an owl, head bent at ninety degrees to my spine. That one always freaked them out.

"I did not know your people had such flexibility," Iroh said in his usual cheerful voice, but his tone was hushed and his eyes sharp as a blade. "What does an agent of the Crypt Gods wish with a simple prisoner of the Fire Lord?"

I had to give him points for his cool. He must have seen some pretty strange shit in his life to not be freaked out by a human with an exoskeleton. I had heard the term Crypt Gods before to refer to the dead Old Ones; but it was a damn archaic term. Probably only the oldest of the Royal Library's scrolls would even mention us in a legendary capacity. I suppose it was fair, since modern human tongues didn't really have a good word for us.

"Hardly," I hissed. "I'm here for information grandmaster. I need to know about the attempted murder of a child. My employers have not limited my use of force."

This got Iroh's attention. I don't know if it was the offhanded mention that he was a grandmaster or the infanticide, but suddenly he changed from a kindly (if ripped) old man into The Dragon of the West. I was very happy that there were bars between us. It would give the two or three seconds I needed to get the _hell_ out of there if I had to.

"Explain yourself," he said in a level voice, just above a whisper.

I threw a white lotus tile at his feet. "Twenty two days ago, my employer was assaulted by a strike team of eight people within the confines of their house. The assassins, when under the knife, confessed that their orders were to retrieve the youngest of the family for dissection, and to bring in the corpse of the eldest child if possible. They also revealed that their employer was overly fond of Pai Sho and had a particular fondness for white lotus tiles."

I called on all my intimidation skills to flare up my ridges and stabilizers, standing nearly seven feet tall from stabilizer to foot. "I want to know why the White Lotus society put out a hit on the Jin Xiao family. And why they didn't know enough to send a hell of a lot more force. What are your people playing at General?"

Iroh looked stunned and he sat back against the wall. "I do not understand. That doesn't make sense."

He gave me a sharp look and then shrugged his smock back over his shoulders. "Let me tell you why. I cannot tell you much of the organization, but I can tell you two things. One, we do not put out contracts on the lives of children. Two, I can honestly tell you that I have never met another who knows that your kind exist. Mai."

"You really are as good as Zuko says you are," I replied. I knew that there was a significant risk of his figuring out who I was. It was a calculated gamble, and I prayed to the Old Ones Zuko was right about the old man. "Okay, General, time for a little bit of honest trust."

I un-wrapped the scarf around my face and pulled my hood back, staring at him. He met my alien eyes without flinching. In fact he looked more in awe than anything else.

"So it is you," he said. I could tell his eyes held a thousand questions, but he knew better than to ask.

"Yes," I said. I narrowed my eyes. "I want you to spread the word to your men and the Society. The Jin Xiao family is off limits. If anyone tries to kill me or my brother, and I find out it was your society, I will have my agents go on a rampage that will double the murder count in the Capital until they've destroyed your entire infrastructure. Is that clear enough to you?"

"Yes," he said after a moment. "But I fear you may be overestimating my capacity. I am still a prisoner here."

"Because you choose to be," I spat back. "These walls couldn't hold me, couldn't hold Zuko, and as sure as the Void is cold, it couldn't hold you."

It was his turn to grin a little. "I see you are as good as Azula thought you to be. My niece is a demon, but a good judge of capability. You know, we now both have damning information about the other. Information that is too dangerous to let anyone else know about."

"True grandmaster," I said. "Very true. Mutual suicide would occur were it to be revealed."

"Then why take such a terrible risk?" he asked. I rocked back and unfocused my eyes. I don't know what I looked like, but Iroh looked taken aback.

"Because I had to know," I whispered. "I had to know if one of the only other people who loved Zuko was capable of ordering the capture and dissection of an infant boy."

I refocused my eyes and once again Iroh had placed his face into an unreadable mask. I reached within myself and turned on my Void sight looking at him. Around him coiled a dragon with long whiskers and scales the color of banked coals. It was as if all he was waiting for was a little fuel to be added to burst into a raging inferno. The dragon regarded me with an intense look, but not necessarily unfriendly. I closed off the sight before I overloaded my poor brain like I had with Zuko.

This man was no more capable of killing a baby than Zuko was. Oh, if disturbed he would be an avalanche of destruction the likes of which I really didn't want to be around to see; but in his heart he was a good man. Perhaps even a great man; one who had seen suffering and still remained standing, and a man who had discovered his own path. I could hardly believe that he was Ozai's brother, or Azula's uncle.

"You do love him," Iroh said. I was the one who broke the gaze, looking away. Iroh grunted. "That is a dangerous thing. My nephew cannot stay as he is now. He has begun to see the price of his father's ways. He will not remain under his father's wing forever."

"I know that," I whispered. I looked back at him and I couldn't force my face to take any expression at all. "He is a good man, like his uncle. And if he has to… leave me because of it, I won't stop him. I just hope he won't do something stupid."

"I hope so too," Iroh said. He looked pensive. "He knows now some of the truths that have been hidden from the world about his great grandfather and the Avatar Roku."

I almost asked what he meant, but he rolled on. "That was an interesting trick that you did with your eyes. What was it?"

"You could see that?" I couldn't help the surprise in my voice. Iroh nodded.

"It was like your eyes were replaced with the night's sky for just a moment," he said. He rubbed his long beard. "It was some kind of merging with the spirit world; that much I could tell."

"Hm," I said. That was an interesting revelation. Some whose souls had wandered to the spirit world had their eyes opened in the process. I wondered what Iroh had done to get his sight. Such trips weren't made lightly. I didn't even know someone could see the use of Void sight. Of course, I'd hardly ever met anyone who could interact with spirits other than the Gel-Hassad, and I'd never used it on them. "I was looking at you General, that's all."

Iroh raised an eyebrow, but when I stopped there he shrugged. "I hope you saw whatever it was you were looking for."

"I did," I said. I narrowed my eyes. "You are an honorable man. Send word to your people. Find out who authorized this, because I _am_ going to make an example out of them General. I am sorry for your sake if it is one of your men, but they crossed someone they shouldn't have."

"You'll get no arguments from me," Iroh said. He looked at me with his weighing eye again, measuring me against some standard. "There is no one else who knows, is there?"

I closed my eyes. "No, General, no one else knows. Only you and my people are aware. Neither Azula nor Zuko even suspect."

"You have taken an awful risk," he said. His voice sounded concerned and caring. "This could mean the end for your family if I were to talk."

"It isn't the worst risk I've taken," I replied. I opened my eyes. "You niece is going to take the three of us and a full division to Ba Sing Se. We're to suppress the populace. Zuko is coming with us. The Fire Lord believes it will be an opportunity for him to showcase his loyalty."

I didn't know the Dragon could curse so effectively. I cut him off with a slicing gesture. "I don't have much more time old man, so listen well. She is going to do this the most brutal way she can. We're going to have to instill absolute terror of the Fire Nation into the people. You know what that means?"

"Of course," Iroh said heavily.

"Zuko will be spared that much," I said in my flat voice. "I've seen to it that he won't be involved. Only one of us will be responsible for that work."

Iroh's eyes widened. "You… you would do this to protect my nephew?"

"I would," I said in as level a voice as I could manage. I could feel my hands shaking. "He is special General, a man to be treasured. I couldn't allow him to be destroyed by this; and it would destroy him. It's what Azula wanted, but I think she's willing to take me instead. I think my 'noble' sacrifice amuses her."

"You are right," Iroh replied. "Both about my niece and my nephew. This will cost you a great deal young lady."

"I've already given up a lot for less," I said, and it was true. I'd been an assassin for three years. I'd racked up a decent sized body count before my parents left for Omashu. But I was honest with myself. I'd killed men and women with my bare hands, but never anything remotely like what Azula had planned. I looked down at the ground, feeling the weight of what I would have to do. I caught Iroh's eyes on the way down and what I saw surprised me.

His eyes were kind as he looked at me with a sadness that only true understanding brings. "Even if he never learns what you have done for his sake, know that there is at least one other who does know and who thanks you with all he is for what you are about to do. And is one who would do exactly the same thing were he to be in your position."

I snapped my head up to look at him head on. Even though I was taller than him by at least a head, I felt small and lost. He carefully reached his hand through the bars and grabbed my wrist before I could pull it away. He ran his fingers down my hand's exoskeleton in a comforting way. It was like a dam of some kind in me let loose, and my knees buckled. The armored plates on my shins scraped against the prison floor, and I could feel tears running down my face though my expression was constant. Even though I was some kind of legendary monster that claimed to love his nephew, he didn't seem to care. I don't know how long I sat there, and it was longer than I wanted to stay. But someone who _understood_ offering me any comfort was something I didn't think I'd see for a very long time.

"I'm doing it for him," I said in a rough voice. I pulled my hand away and slowly got to my feet. "I'll do what's necessary. Do this for me. Find out who would kill my brother. Then give me their names. I'll take care of the rest."

"I will do this," Iroh replied with a nod. There was a deadly firmness and calm in his voice, so much more frightening than anything I'd ever heard from Azula. "If they are within my organization, you will know as soon as I can arrange it."

"Good," I said. I wiped the tears away onto my sleeve. Such a display of weakness would have gotten me in trouble anywhere else, but I was so tired of trying to keep it all inside.

"Now go," Iroh said. There was a strange glint in his eye as he nodded at me. "And may the spirits walk with you and protect you in all the empty places which you must walk."

I felt a strange shiver run down my spine, almost as if something that hadn't been paying attention before had its eyes on me. I fled the prison. For a place designed to hold people in, it was remarkably easy for me to get out. I really didn't feel much like going home. Even after a completely sleepless night, I felt too wound up and nervous to sleep. So I used my glider to land at the edge of the volcano's lip.

As I stood on the lip of the caldera and watched the sun rise, I tried to clear my mind. I had hoped to find out more about the attempt on my brother, but I'd only ended up facing some of the ugly truths that were just over the horizon. Tom-Tom was safe. I had bigger things to worry about. Things like retaining my sanity.

* * *

**Richard Caine - Jade Knight**

**Please Read & Review**


	10. Something Dark is Coming

_Disclaimer: We own nothing except the original plot lines and characters... and all profites from the cage match involving my Penguin and Richards monkey. Cast YOUR VOTES as to the victor via review... and you'll see the play by play of that bloody battle in the next chapter._

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(Richard's) Author's Note: It's been a while. I'd give the excuses of job hunting, apartment hunting and various other unpleasantries, but they'd just be excuses. The Knight has been recovering from a fairly devastating document corruption, but he's building up steam again. However the story _is_ still alive. So, to keep up a bit of momentum, we present another chapter of Mai's story, and an interlude after it about a familiar face that might have been much more important than almost any one realized… and a hint of things to come. Unpleasant things.

After all, something dark _is_ coming… I bet you can hardly wait.

-Caine

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(Jade Knight's) Authors Note: We're really sorry people, but life has been taking the beating stick to out neither bits and it hasn't been pleasant. Like Richard said above I suffered total curruption on my master copy of 'Master of the Black Sword'; meaning that I lost a hundred and sixteen pages (Richards additions included) of the best fanfic I have every written. If any of you have suffer a similar fate you know how disheartening it can be. That combined with a sprained wrist totally destroyed all my ambition for this story. BUT NEVER FEAR, we are back and ten times more magically delicious. As you can see Richard has once again pulled my screaming body from the grasp of the rioting torch carrying mob with his contribution... for which I am eternally grateful. I had gotten my kick back and the possibility of a 7 day update is looking good.

-so lets get on with it

-The Man in the Jade Armor

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**One more thing... the Forum that I set up to increase Writer/Reader interactivity has been sadly dead for the past two or three updates. In there you can directly ask myself and Richard questions or just toss an idea our way and receive feed back almost instantly, I built it for you, check it out.**

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* * *

**Sokka: Master of the Black Sword**

By: Richard Caine

Creative Consultant & Beta: Jade Knight

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**-The Resistance Saga-**

**Chapter 10**

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The Story of Mai

Part 4: Something Dark is Coming

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The newer model airships were a thing of pure martial beauty. Each one was a flying fortress of metal and firing ports. They also carried enormous bays for personnel, equipment, and explosive bomb racks. They were truly a flying storm of destruction. With the world devoid of the Air Nomads, the Fire Nation had finally become the world's pre-eminent air power. In the age of the Nomads, such ships would have been impractical. From the legends, their greatest warriors could have called up storm winds brutal enough to bring even these mighty behemoths crashing down. Of course, since Sozin's campaign of extermination that wasn't much of a problem. Legends of my people had said that the Old Ones and the Gel Hassad of old had been masters of flight as well and that only the Air Nomads could have come close to fighting them in the skies. During the fifty year war, it had cost them dearly to ground the aerial forces of the Old Ones. I imagined that their ships must have been like this; huge and capable of amazing things.

I stood at the window of the observation gallery, overlooking into the cavernous maw of the transport deck that would carry a sixth of a full division of the Fire Nation army across the Center Sea in only six days. I had to suppress a shiver when thinking about the Center Sea. It was too dangerous a place to sail, and I suspected it might be a risky flight despite the assurances the aerial commanders that it was perfectly safe. It was one thing to have a silly superstition. It was another thing entirely to be dead certain that there were _things_ crawling all over the area. Some of the Gel Hassad's legends were quite specific on their nature as well.

Currently the Fourth Dragon of his Imperial Majesty's Royal Army was boarding the airship, tanks and all. From the tall observation gallery at the very peak of the stories-tall aircraft, they looked like nothing so much as a bunch of ants marching in close formation. Occasionally sunlight glinted off of the polished armor of the Fourth's infantry, causing them to glitter in the dying sunlight of the Capital.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Azula asked, standing beside me with her arms crossed behind her back, the very picture of aristocratic might and dignity. I allowed my lips to quirk in my equivalent of a smile.

"It certainly engenders a false sense of infallibility," I replied. Azula actually laughed at that.

"You're right of course," she said. "Misplaced confidence is the mark of a fool. Shining armor in parade formation doesn't mean much in the field. The finest sword needn't be the prettiest, and even the greatest of weapons in the hands of fools are useless. That's why you are here now."

Azula was the mistress of the backhanded compliment. She turned away from the marching army below and walked over to where a table map of Ba Sing Se was laid out in meticulous detail. It was a huge thing, covering a table big enough to seat the entire war council. The three rings were inscribed with major avenues marked off. I let my practiced eye trace out the details. It was surprisingly accurate. There were even areas to account for battle damage in the lower and uppermost rings. I looked over at Azula with a raised eyebrow.

"Someone was taking this seriously. This is one of the best maps I've ever seen."

"It should be," Azula said blandly. "It's the only thing saving the neck of the current governor. Father wished to execute him for incompetence, but I persuaded him to let me do my work first. If the governor proves to be sufficiently pliable, then perhaps I'll see fit to let him live."

"Another politician for your collection," I said wryly. She shot me a tight smile.

"Of course dearest," she purred. She looked down at the map in thought. "They're _so_ much more fun to collect than simple jewelry; and so much more useful. Now, we have more pressing matters to attend to. The Sixth Dragon will be picked up en route, and with the Fourth, Sixth, and Twelfth Dragons we should have more than enough men for what I have in mind."

"First," she said pointing at various gateways into and out of the city. "We secure the transit systems. The governor had to allow the benders who controlled the logistical network to continue their jobs. It's frustrating, but I'm forced to agree with his approach for now. Without its infrastructure, Ba Sing Se would collapse in a day, and almost everything that they do is based on Earth Bending. However, the flip side to this is that our dear friends in the resistance have been using tram tunnels and under-ways to bypass the surface checkpoints. The Twelfth Dragon has been outfitted for underground combat, and that will be their task. I will assign the Sixth to patrolling and use the Fourth as a strategic and tactical reserve. They're fast, and they're veterans of the last invasion attempt. They'll know the kind of trickery they'll be up against."

"And if tightening the net doesn't slow them down enough?" I prompted, nearly forgetting my nervousness as I looked over the detailed deployment plan. It was a work of genius. Whatever else she was, Azula was an unusually gifted strategist.

"That's where you come in," she said and my nausea came back in a flash. There was something very worrying in her tone. I glanced to the side as she handed me a set of orders. "You will be in command of the Fourth's commissariat. The divisions have a capture prerogative. When the prisoners begin rolling in, your men and the Dai Li will be in charge of breaking them. From there, we'll do the only thing that makes sense. Kill their entire family. Do that enough times and their support will be torn from them. They are soft, the people of the walled city. They haven't seen the constant warfare that the rest of the Earth Kingdom has. They lack the appropriate… perspective. It is our job, yours specifically, to educate them."

"As you wish," I said, and I was proud of myself for keeping an iron control over my voice. "May I take these and review the personnel I'm going to have under my command? I want to be sure that I know who I've got that's dependable."

"Very well," Azula said with a dismissive wave. "Do as you wish. Just be sure to be back here by Friday. In five day's time the Sixth and the Twelfth will be ready to go."

"I will," I said with a bow. "I also have a need to ensure that the family business is properly looked after while I'm away. You know how irresponsible servants can be when your eye isn't on them all the time."

"Believe me, I know," she said, and gave me a very piercing look. "I know that very well. I look forward to seeing you again Mai. I'll be here when you return."

It was a long and very thoughtful ride back from the Capital staging grounds. The crescent shaped island that was the capital actually only had one space that was large enough and flat enough to house our air fleet, and it was on the far side of the caldera from the upper city. Effectively the only way to get around was a hike up the volcano, or to sail around to the back. Thankfully I'd brought a komodo-rhino, and the ride wasn't as infuriating as it might have been with a less dexterous mount. Still, it gave me plenty of time to think as my giant lizard picked its way over the black rocks. My thoughts were chaotic and uncertain. I felt the press of my duties and my heart pulling me in separate directions, and it was beginning to irritate me severely.

On the one hand, I most definitely couldn't refuse any of Azula's commands. I knew that if she felt even a hint of betrayal, she'd plant my head on a pike in front of the palace. Oh, it wouldn't be immediate of course. Our family had a great deal of influence within the capital. Still, it was merely an inevitable consequence. It wasn't as if I really cared about the lives of the people that I was going to kill. It was actually a purely selfish thought. It was the cost to me that I was most worried about. I already felt like I had a tenuous grip on my sanity. Killing people who didn't deserve to die might just be enough to push me over the edge. What I'd become, I had no idea, though I could guess.

I had seen Gel-Hassad who'd taken one too many missions that had questionable moral foundations. It had terrifying results. I couldn't tell for sure whether there was a real truth to the legends that for every innocent slain a piece of the soul was consumed by the dark gods or if it was just the simple dissociation from humanity. I suppose it didn't really matter; the result was the same. The blank eyed killers of the Obsidian Talon, a subgroup of the Gel-Hassad that specialized in… unsavory jobs, were some of the few people on the planet who genuinely scared me.

As I rode up the caldera and back towards the family mansion I had the chilling realization that even though I wouldn't back down, that I would do everything I had to to protect Zuko, I really didn't want to end up like them; and I was afraid that I might not really have a choice in the matter.

0o0o0o0

I had barely gotten back to my chambers when a servant rushed in to see me. I blinked at his extreme haste and I was about to snap at him in displeasure when I noticed the naked stress on his face.

"What is it?" I asked carefully.

"My lady," he responded, catching his breath. "A visitor for you, bearing the Black Seal. He claims that he brings knowledge most dire."

"Send him here," I said. The servant nodded, but I had no time to waste. The Black Seal wasn't waved around without reason. "Go!"

I rarely shouted, but it had the desired effect. The little man scampered from the room in a whirl of brown and crimson robes. I walked over to a balcony, one of those that overlooked the great palace itself and crossed my hands behind my back. It took a few minutes but a single person was soon approaching at great speed. I cocked my head to the side as they entered the room, not bothering to turn around.

"Report," I said blandly.

"Yegoth still lives in her people's hearts," the man intoned in a flat voice that could only come from one of the People who wasn't good at hiding their nature. I turned my head around just a little too far for a normal human and looked at him with my left eye. My sclera pulled back to reveal my cross shaped pupils. The man I was looking at was one I had seen before, at the great council meetings I'd been to three times in my life. But I couldn't remember his name; some minor functionary or mercenary trainer. Skilled with a sword, I suppose. In fact, that was his preferred style if I recalled correctly. He was some kind of master warrior, although I was at something of a loss to remember his standing among the Gel Hassad dueling association; perhaps the sixth or seventh seat. A name came to me. Senchi; that was what they'd called him. I doubted it was his real name, but it worked as a title I supposed.

His ornate clothing was dusty from the road, and his sandy hair looked like it had seen better days. I suppose it must have been windswept, but there was a great deal of grime in it. His own eyes were exposed, and they stared at me from his expressionless face with something like fear. I narrowed my eyes. Something wasn't right here.

"Speak," I said quickly. "What brings you to us?"

"Grave news my lady," he said quietly. His voice was shaking. Shaking voices plus Gel Hassad weapons master equals bad. I waited for him to gather his wits, but my patience was just about out.

"There are several local Soudatsu that I compete in," he began just before I was going to prompt him with something pointy. I nodded and he continued. "I usually maintain a low profile, but this year the Homarnu Soudatsu had a large number of unusually skilled opponents. I thought it wise to test some of my newer techniques against worthy foes."

I raised an eyebrow and he hastily backed off, bowing his head low in a sign of submission. "I mean no offense mistress; I understand that it was a… breach of protocol."

The way he said that made my eyebrow raise even higher. "Continue."

"All was well until the tenth and final match," he said. Senchi swallowed, and seemed to marshal his thoughts before he continued. "I went up against the most extraordinary young man. He was quite skilled for a human. His previous fights had grabbed my attention, I knew not why at the time. I was tracking him with my Void sight, to learn how he moved. He had thus far beaten almost all of his opponents with relative ease. The beginning was simple. He was a man who most of our basic troops could face, but he was definitely distracted by something. I thought that I had simply overestimated him, blinded by my desire for a worthy opponent. I had nearly defeated him when I decided to give him a moment to gather his thoughts. My test would be useless on a weak opponent. That proved to be a mistake."

"He," Senchi began, and then paused. "I can think of no other way to say it my lady. This young _human_ male drew upon the Void state; and perhaps other magics that neither I, nor any Gel-Hassad that I know of, have ever seen before. He managed to isolate _time_, my lady. He slipped beyond the Veil and took me with him."

"He was human, you said?" I asked. I had a rising feeling of nausea. If my hints were correct, this… this could be very bad.

"Yes my lady," he said shakily. "His mask was broken in the fight and, he was unusual looking. He had dark skin, and his eyes were a color blue I have rarely seen before."

"Fuck," I whispered before Senchi could continue. He politely ignored me, and rolled on.

"I believe that… he may have been the one we were searching for. He displayed… an uncanny insight into my actions, and once he was focused, he defeated me easily within forty to sixty seconds. I cannot tell for certain due to the dimensional dilation." Senchi shivered, probably at the memories of the fight. "Mistress, I do not wish to succumb to vanity; but I hold the second seat of sword mastery, second only to master Haiyahi himself. No mortal human, no score of mortal men could have defeated me with the ease this one did."

"It's him," I said quietly. I whirled to face him, and I could feel my outer skin shedding. In my terror and rage I was reverting to my true form.

"The host of the Incarna was within fifty miles of the capital of the Fire Nation and we didn't know?" I screamed at the cowering man.

He moved away from my banshee screech, but he held up a hand desperately. "Please, there is more. H – He had three traveling companions. One, a young blind girl, another that must have been his sister, and a third male with grey eyes. Such eyes are rare except…"

"For the Air Nomads," I finished, my snarl echoing in the room. "Did you get a good look at the boy? How tall was the fourth, the Air Nomad?"

Senchi held his hand steadily above his head at the appropriate height. My fist pounded into the nearby stone pillar and dented it considerably. "Old ones fucking damn it! The _Avatar_ and the _Incarna_ were both within fifty miles of the Fire Nation capital and no one realized a damn thing until now? What do we pay our agents for? Certainly not this… foolishness."

I turned back to the man at my feet, my stabilizers trembling. "Tell me you have something actually useful to us, Senchi, or I feel Mother will be _most_ displeased."

My anger was causing a very slight temperature drop in the room. A nearby vase of fire lilies began to wilt as my rage distorted the environment. I don't think I'd ever been this scared or angry before.

I was furiously angry because I hated being caught unawares. Having the two single most powerful persons of mass destruction show up at your doorstep unannounced was simply unconscionable for an intelligence service of any kind, and the fact that the knowledge had been stumbled upon by an idiot who only came upon it by dumb chance disturbed me. It showed that the intelligence service either had a horrible incompetence (which I doubted) or the Incarna's host had a deadly cunning (which was the worse outcome by far).

The fear came from what I suspected them to actually be capable of doing if the two of them truly worked together. Alone the two of them had kept the peace in an age of high science and magic. The two of them in this fallen age… they might be completely unstoppable unless we knew every advantage we could have; and right now I had none.

"I have this," he said quickly, withdrawing a broken mask with his trembling hands. I looked at it. For what it was, it was quite an intimidating piece of work. I'd rarely seen better craftsmanship with clay. "I paid a great sum for it, but this is the mask he wore throughout the tournament."

I carefully picked the mask from his grip. There was a long vertical scar by one eyes slit that gave it a slightly sinister air. I turned away from Senchi and activated my Void Sight, looking at the mask. It was nearly alive with spirit energy, and to my Other sight it glowed like a white hot blaze in a dark room. Somehow the mask had absorbed a fraction of the Incarna's power at some point. I couldn't even pretend to understand. The last Incarna to be called had been two hundred years before I'd been born. I shut off my Void Sight and turned to Senchi again.

"Alright," I said shakily, and I cursed my weak voice as I tried to think as clearly as I could. "This changes everything. Tell me Senchi, what other things have you retrieved for us?"

"I also have gathered some information, though it is far from complete," he said quickly. "I believe they are headed for Ba Sing Se. A gentleman in the Fire Nation army that I did not have the pleasure of dueling seems to have decided to give them information regarding the new reinforcement that Azula is heading up. I don't know how many true details that they know. I do not know how they will act on the information given them, but past patterns would indicate that they would attempt to stop such a further invasion of the Earth Kingdom."

I thought about what I knew of the Avatar and his behavior patterns. It would suit his impulsive nature to do what he could. If the Incarna spirit was involved it would also sense an opportunity. The heavy ocean lift was much easier to destroy in the air than after it had landed. If it had the opportunity and the inclination to strike a massive military blow, it would. Of course its relationship to the host body was still unknown. However, given the amount of raw power this mask had been exposed to… it did not bode well for my continued health.

Were I to put myself in their position, I would strike at Ba Sing Se as well. There would be time enough with their flying bison thing to cross the distance if they insisted on continuing their invasion plans. Indeed, if we hadn't overheard them, they might have been able to strike so hard they could have crippled the Fire Nation's infrastructure, and maybe even killed the Fire Lord. However, that was no longer a real option. Measures had already been taken. They couldn't know this of course, and we still had no idea exactly _what_ they were going to throw at us.

Still, the Avatar had already proven that one god-like being with appropriate backup could destroy even the most resilient machine the Fire Nation had ever commissioned. Bringing down a small fleet of airships as a master Air Bender would be no problem. He would undoubtedly think of something. I would have to be prepared, and assume the worst.

"Thank you Senchi," I said quietly. "Leave us now. There is much to consider."

He left me to the quiet of the balcony and I hefted the mask in my hand, looking into its empty eye sockets and wondering. I needed a better plan, and I really needed one fast. I sat down on one of the reclining couches in the room and began to think.

"Distressing news, isn't it daughter?" a high voice asked from a shadowed corner.

"Yes mother," I said absently, feeling the smooth clay of the mask in my hand. I wondered where he'd gotten it. I hadn't seen anything like this since I was in Ba Sing Se. Thinking of the great city made my stomach curl a little. "What do the Elders think we should do?"

"At this moment?" she asked with a raised eyebrow, melting out of the shadows. "Nothing. However, we must remain vigilant. They were completely divided upon the news that the Incarna's current host is to be… human."

"You say that like it's something you aren't," I shot back. I gave my mother an icy glare that she returned with a smirk. I wondered if that expression on me irritated others as much as hers did me.

"Oh, don't let you infatuation for 'Prince' Zuko cloud your mind girl," she returned with an airy wave. "We are nothing like them in many ways. We are different creatures."

"You bore one of those 'creatures' two children mother," I replied flatly. "Isn't that an indicator of a close relationship?"

"You know what your father is to me," she said quietly.

"A tool, nothing more," I stated. She nodded and I pursed my lips in anger. "I don't like Father all that much in some ways, but I am as much his daughter as yours. I think the Elders haven't thought about that as much as they ought. If we weren't human, then why would we be able to breed true as we do?"

"Your questions have complicated answers," she smirked. "But in short we subsume their lesser qualities when we share blood."

"Ah," I said, feeling petty. "Then we're a disease. That's comforting."

That one hit home. My mother's face was blank as new slate.

"Shut your mouth child. You don't know what you're talking about," she said, and the hiss of her voice was deep and unpleasant. I stood up and looked her straight in the eye.

"Mother," I state formally. "I've a mission to attend to now. We can sit here and argue about the wisdom of the Elders but I have very real things that need doing. Is there any other point to this than tormenting your child some more?"

"Hm," she replied and she ran her fingers along her own jaw line for a moment. "Yes there are a few things. First, the Elders have authorized you and a few select others in the world to try to initiate contact with the Incarna's host. Attempt to befriend, or at least educate it on the ways of the People. He will discover them either by our interference or by his own bumbling experiments. We have no wish to end up exposed simply because the Water tribe boy summons the wrong spirit or uses Void powers in an overly flashy way."

"You'd trust me to make that kind of contact?" I asked and I felt a deep sense of surprise. She nodded her response.

"Yes," she stated. "You are also one of the few who might have the skill to help train the Incarna in our arts. I also trust you to use your judgment soundly. You've done an admirable job so far."

I was actually a little touched by that. It was a bit of a backhanded compliment, but for me to be complimented on anything by my mother was so rare that I couldn't help but feel a slight swell of happiness. I didn't feel as if I owed the old hag much, but it's always nice to hear that your family might actually believe you to be competent.

"Thank you mother," I said, and bowed a little. After I straightened up I looked at her closely. "There is more?"

"The second part of your mission is a little more dangerous," she said. She examined her hands in the afternoon sun. "We have several family interests in Ba Sing Se that ought not to be disturbed. With the coming invasion of the city, we need you to overlook our assets as best you can and protect them when possible. The solicitor has the details."

"Mother," I cut in before she could continue. She tried to give me a sharp look, but whatever she saw in my expression caused her to falter a little. Perhaps some of my fear and anger was coming across, even though my voice sounded dull in my own ears. "I've been assigned to Azula's little purgation squad. I'm going to be rounding up those who fight back and their families and executing them. I'm going to be under too much scrutiny to do much more than ordered. I worry that Azula suspects something."

"She suspects your nature?" my mother asked, cocking her head to the right.

"I don't think so, not like that at least," I said. I thought about it for a moment. "It's more akin to institutional paranoia. My closeness to her brother is a threat to her own power. She will be keeping an eye on me because I may soon become a political rival. That is, if what you and father have planned for my future happens."

I tried not to sound bitter about it, I really did. Unfortunately bitterness comes naturally to me, and it did a very good job of incensing my mother.

"It was you who pursued the Prince," she said, raising her voice a little. She must have been really pissed. I frowned at her, reveling in the agony of it.

"Oh yes, it was me," I hissed. I was angry, confused, and tired, and I did _not_ have the patience for this right now. "It was me who said sit and be a good girl. Don't let those who matter see you unless called for. Don't show yourself to the court unless it puts you in their favor. Play with the princess, be her friend. It will further your father's goals. Pursue the boy, he is useful. The fact that I actually love him is incidental to you, isn't it?"

She looked about ready to hex me. Subtle spirit power began crackling in her hand like static electricity but I wasn't done just yet. I narrowed my eyes. "The news is this. Azlua is a psychotic bitch who would kill me for insubordination if I _ever_ crossed a big enough line. My friendship has protected me so far, but you know what? Azula doesn't have friends mother. She has tools that are useful and those that stand in her way. Nothing else matters to her. Not even her own fucking brother. _I_ am expendable mother. I can't do what you're asking because if I do I might get killed for it. Then you, dad, and Tom-Tom would follow. I don't think you understand what you're asking me to do, so I'm going to politely ignore it. Go away mother. I've got the murder of children to plan."

I knew it was harsh and over the top, but it sure as heck got the point across. My mother flinched and I slowly sat back down on my couch and clutched the mask in my hands. It was cool to the touch and running my fingers along its smooth surface gave me a slight feeling of peace after my last outburst.

For a long minute my mother stood where she was. She shook her head after a little while and sighed. "Mai, I know this is difficult, but it must be done."

"I know that," I replied. My voice felt dead and distant, as if someone else were using my mouth as a puppeteer would. Right now I just wanted her to go somewhere else. "I'll do what I can."

"I… I will inform the Elders of that," she said with a slight hesitation. I nodded silently.

After another long and uncomfortable pause my mother left. I really couldn't stand her presence right now. I sighed and began to think, staring at the mask in my hands. Slowly, almost tantalizingly a plan began to form. It was half thoughts and images at the moment, but I knew there was something there; something that would get me and Zuko out of this nightmare. I just didn't have all the pieces of the puzzle and the final solution kept avoiding me. I dug further into my mind looking for a clarity that didn't seem to come to me despite my hours of work. Hopefully something would come to me and soon. I was running out of time.

0o0o0o0o0

"Hey," a voice called out. I started from where I had been sitting, the mask still in my hands. I looked down at it and realized the room was a lot darker than it had been when I was last paying attention to my surroundings. I cursed myself for my thoughtlessness, but it was done now. I turned my head to give the only person who addressed me with 'hey' a smile.

"Hey to you too," I said, and my voice sounded even rougher than usual. He walked in and smiled down at me. He leaned over and gently brushed my lips with his own before straightening up.

"I thought you'd be getting ready to go," he said. He gave the mask a strange look but ignored it after I put it down on a nearby end table. I stretched slowly, and I felt my joints popping.

"I'm pretty much packed already," I said with sigh. "I've started keeping a whole kit ready for whenever your darling sister decides we need to go on another 'fun trip'."

Zuko gave a short laugh at that and walked around to sit down next to me. His trailing fingers accidentally touched the mask, and he drew his hand back with a hiss. I blinked at him.

"That thing is _cold_," Zuko said in an irritated voice. "How could you hold on to something like that without hurting yourself?"

I blinked again. "Um, it didn't feel that cold a second ago."

"Weird," he said, giving it a mistrustful glance. He shrugged and turned back to look at me. "Has Azula told you what she's been planning?"

"Basically," I said carefully. "You?"

"Yeah," he said with a sigh. He sat down on the edge of the couch and rubbed his scarred eye with the heel of his palm. "I… I don't like what she's got planned. I understand that we need men in there to reinforce the other occupation forces but her suppression plans, those are another thing. I'm worried that, well, that she'll take it too far. I don't want to be responsible for the death of innocent people Mai. We do enough of that _without_ going out of our way to do it."

He seemed to be lost in thought. Sometimes his memories caught up with him so much that I felt like the only thing I could do was just sit there and wait for it to pass. A minute or so of silence passed as he stared out the nearby window at the setting sun. I very carefully laid my hand on his arm, and he turned to look at me. I could see his concern and his fear warring with some kind of sense of duty. I honestly didn't know what to tell him, so I said nothing. I just leaned forward and gave him a gentle kiss.

"I don't know what's going to happen," I said truthfully. The fact that the Incarna and the Avatar were both involved in this and on the same side made me feel uneasy. "But I do know this. We'll do what we have to do, right?"

"Yeah," Zuko said unenthusiastically. I very gently traced my hand along his scar, feeling a brief surge of fury at the man who'd done this to him. But I didn't know what to do, what to say to him. I really couldn't say any more than that and be telling the truth, and frankly I was tired of lying, especially to Zuko. So instead of saying anything more we just sat there in the gathering gloom and I held him tightly to me, resting my chin on his shoulder. As I watched the sun fade I was struck with an incredible sense of foreboding. The pieces were coming together, but I just didn't have a broad enough view to understand what the hell was happening. That thought was intimidating in and of itself, but worse than that was the quiet.

For the last week, the Whispers had been totally silent. There was no guidance from the ancestors, and the Archive had been inaccessible to me for days now, even though I'd tried to reach it. My mother had claimed that she had received no visions either. It was as if the entire network, the source of the Archive and the Whispers was spinning down, almost as if it was preparing for something; something that was bigger than anything in centuries.

I held onto Zuko and I felt the sure and steady knowledge flow into me. Something dark was coming. And I really didn't know what to do about it.

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Interlude: Red May

A plain looking girl sat behind a rickety desk that held a formidable stack of scrolls and other paperwork. From the dim light that was cast from the orbs that hung in the vaulted ceiling of her 'office space', she was cast in deep shadow. The clothes she wore were as unremarkable as the rest of her absolutely normal, if thin, body. The only truly distinctive feature that she had was her face. It was just a little too thin, a little too sharp, and the glowering brown eyes had a cold detachment that had made more than one captured Dai Li shudder in horror.

She was a ghost, a woman that didn't exist. The Fire Nation soldiers that patrolled the streets so far above knew what she was called. They called her Red May, for it had been the first day of that month when she appeared, just a few days after the Fire Nation coup. In a single night an entire barracks full of Dai Li had been strangled to death with red scarves and in each of their foreheads had been carved the character for 'Traitor'.

It was said among the lower rings that she had been trained by the Dai Li, a perfect tool for assassination. The legend continued that one day she'd broken free of her 'Ju Di' persona and slaughtered an entire contingent of Dai Li before wrecking one of their most secret encampments. She was supposedly the greatest earth bender left in the city, one woman a match for an army. Entire patrols in the lower rings would disappear, and the only thing left would be a swatch of red fabric and three simple words elegantly drawn in the blood of the missing men.

"Leave this Place."

She'd been seen of course. The Fire Nation knew what she looked like, and the Dai Li had her face plastered over the entire great city. Not that 'Red May' cared. The truth of Red May was far more mundane. Who would believe a young woman who was going to be a scholarship student at Ba Sing Se University before the fall would have the kind of power needed to do such a horrific deed. Indeed, it was impossible for her to even bend earth. She was just a normal woman. However, that wasn't her real power. In a world full of monstrous spirits and divinely gifted martial artists she was the one who had the ultimate power. She was ruthless; the kind of cold ruthless nature that was the only thing creatures like Azula feared, for they understood one another, predator to predator, monster to monster.

She was no bender, but she could call up platoons of them on a whim. She had no applied subterfuge skills, but an entire guild of mercenary thieves and criminals had been created by her loving hand. Her touch sent ripples throughout the great city, and within its environs she was the manipulator supreme. Perhaps once Long Feng might have matched her; not any longer however. Long Feng was past his prime, and Red May was just hitting her stride.

No one knew where her bodyguards had come from. One, who wore his peasant's hat and had never spoken a word that had been recorded, was a marksman that put the Yu Yan to shame. Usually after he killed an entire squad of them by himself. The other was an androgynous creature who wore its hair in a pageboy cut, and painted red marks beneath her eyes with the blood of their fallen foes. It was whispered that they swore their very souls to her. Perhaps they did; the truth was only theirs to tell, and none of them spoke of it.

But as with all spoken arts, Red May had a talent for lies and deception, mostly because she only used them sparingly. A hint of truth, a whisper of real motivation soon blew out of control to become something more. Jin the failed college student could be killed; Red May was invincible as long as there were those who lived in Ba Sing Se.

They thought that she was new, that she was something that fought against the usurping Fire Kingdom soldiers with a righteous fury born of nationalistic pride. Those who worked the counterintelligence table back in the palace knew differently. She had been too quick too powerful too fast. It wasn't just exceptional turn around for covert operations, it was impossible.

The truth was that she had been planning insurrection long before. No one knew what had driven her to it, but the very organization that she controlled hinted that she had not been the first generation to belong to it. Those who remembered mentioned her father fondly when outside of her presence. He had been a hero to the cause, a man who would change the world. His disgust at the actions of the Earth King and his discovery of the Ancient Temple City of Ba Sing Se far beneath the true city had created a catalytic reaction that had led to this very day. The Old Timers said that she was her father's daughter with a very real fondness.

She understood political truths that her father did not. The king was necessary, as was the very structure of Ba Sing Se's political machine. It was too unwieldy to change now, far too many depended upon its existence to ensure their own. The cycle of dependence could not be easily broken, if at all. Red May argued that it was not the system, but rather those at the helm of such a system that were in need of correction. Best of all, she matched her rhetoric with a practical wisdom. She understood the weakness of the bureaucracies; she had dirt on all of them and knew what made them tick. She also had a firm grasp of military reality, and understood that no matter the nominal ruler of Ba Sing Se, for an insurrection to be possible, one thing must happen. The Dai Li must die.

Jin considered it to be fortunate happenstance that he own movements were so well accompanied. The Fire Nation was like an obliging dance partner of convenience. The more they ground the people down, the more that the people began to trust in the May Revolution's philosophy. She couldn't ask for a better associate, really. At least that had held true until now.

She looked at the missive below with a growing sense of dread. At least, it would have been dread if she were truly capable of feeling emotions any more. That was something that might be completely lost to her. Only one man had ever really caught her attention, and she was honest enough with herself to know that it had been at least as much what he was as who he was. It was a shame he'd returned to his throne without her. She'd been shorter on time than she could have guessed.

With a flick of her hair, she turned to look at the androgynous figure leaning against a nearby stone wall. The light from the green crystals gave her a severe look that was at odds with her rounded face.

"So, they've finally wised up," Red May said, sitting up straighter in her chair.

"Looks like it," the guard responded in a rough contralto. "According to this we've got a little upwards of three more dragons coming into the city."

"Well hell Smellerbee," Jin said with a wry smile. "You have handled worse odds, or so you tell me."

Longshot turned and gave Jin a very level look.

"Okay, well, the absolute numbers weren't nearly so large, it's true," Jin admitted. "Still, the troop numbers don't bother me. It's who they're bringing in as leadership."

Jin took out four scrolls and unrolled them. The faces of Azula and her known associates stared up at them, along with that of Prince Zuko. When the scroll for Mai Jin Xiao was unrolled, she heard Longshot draw a hiss of indrawn breath. Jin, who was leaning over the scrolls, turned her head sideways and gave him a very serious look.

"You know her?" Longshot twitched, and Jin's frown deepened. "Okay, so you know _of_ her. What are her full capabilities?"

"Well above that which is known," Longshot said quietly. "She is at least as good as I am, probably quite a bit better. Her family moves in similar circles to what my own used to."

"Damn," Smellerbee whispered. "They're sending the entire royal party?"

"The worst part of it is, they're competent," Jin said. She uncurled herself from her stooped position and leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms under her bosom. "Azula is at least on my level, and she has all the humanity of a forest fire. This is going to get ugly before it gets better. I'm thinking this is going to be a bloodbath. You see, Azula here understands how to fight a popular insurrection; destroy the populace."

Even Longshot looked slightly perturbed by the implications. Their musings were interrupted by a knock at the door. Longshot had an arrow knocked even before the echo faded. A complicated series of taps followed, and Smellerbee drew a battered looking hook-sword from her back and cautiously opened the door to the chamber. A panting man stood at the other side of the door.

"I have news mistress," he gasped a little. Jin was gone, and it was Red May that he saw stand up from behind her desk. She gracefully rose to her feet and walked around the oak contraption to look the man in the eye.

"Catch your breath," she said. "Then you may speak."

He nodded. It only took about thirty seconds, but he finally straightened. "We have had sightings from the towers outside of the Great Wall. The Avatar's bison has been spotted on approach to the city."

"Really?" Jin asked, arching an eyebrow. "This makes our position interesting. Very well, alert all surface teams. We will want them watching for our friends. After all, a free Ba Sing Se is very much in their best interests. Oh, and tell Arckon that I have some additional information for him regarding the matter he inquired about some weeks ago. I'm sure he'll be eager to see it."

"As you say mistress," the messenger said, making a sweeping bow as he left the room. Jin sighed once the door was closed and walked over to the four scrolls laid out on her table.

"It's a shame," she said quietly, running a single finger along the jaw line of Zuko's portrait. "We could have done such wonderful things, Lee, such wonderful things. Now, I'm going to have to arrange for you to die. I wish it could have been different, I really do."

Jin straightened up. "Smellerbee, Longshot, we need to prepare. If the Avatar is coming with his usual team, we're going to want to be ready for them. Assemble what information we have on the composition and methodology of the inbound Fire Nation combat forces and prepare the strike guard for mobilization. Total war is coming to our home, and I'll be damned if I let it destroy everything we've worked so hard to build."

The two slunk out, leaving her staring at the scrolls on her desk. She would hope, but that was something she'd abandoned a long time ago. Hope had little place in this world, in this age. What was needed now was action. Jin idly wondered if the Avatar would be enough to tilt the scales against the Fire Nation juggernaut. He hadn't been so far, but the boy was learning. Still, she was not fool enough to rely on one capricious boy. Her own backup plan was already in motion. After all, without a plan there could never be success.

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**Richard Caine - Jade Knight**

Please Read and Review

The Forum Awaits


	11. The Monsters Within Us

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_Disclaimer: Here we go, the fight of the century. (Chuck Norris steps out onto the ring and round-house kicks the brains out of everything) "Dude, what the hell was that?" __"No votes, and the Norris factor takes over. Got a problem with that puny human?" "No." (Oh, and we kinda sorta own nothing)_

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**Rating Change: In the next few chapters we will be bumping up to an M rating due to the content we are moving into. Blood and mayhem are going to be the main courses of the day along with anything else naughty we are planing on putting in. So, I will give warning and a final announcement right before we push up the rating so please stick with us, its just getting good.**

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_Authors Note: Gods stop throwing stuff at me. Yes I know I said i might be able to get a seven day update but I got my brain smashed in with ideas and the chapter mutated into a 25,000 word demon. What you are reading is part one of a two part chapter... a very informative and explosiony two part chapter. Hope you loves it as much as we do._

_-Man in the Jade Armour_

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**The Forums:** I got the impression that the reason the forum is so dead is because of a lack of interesting topics. Well I attempted to fix that by adding a few more including "Who do you think is trying to deceive Sokka; Genzou or Mouretsu?" and "What are your feelings on Sokka's new nickname for Toph?" check it out and if you have a topic idea toss it up or my way... the more feed back the faster the updates.

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_K, I think thats it._

_Curtain Up!_

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**Sokka: Master of the Black Sword**

By: The Jade Knight & Richard Caine

Creative Consultant & Beta: Richard Caine & The Jade Knight

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**-The Resistance Saga-**

**Chapter 11**

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The Story of Sokka

Part 7: The Monsters Within Us

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The sun was high and beating down on my sore back with a vengeance as I held the crude fishing pole that I had made from a knotted tree branch in a loose grip. We were sitting in the middle of a tiny oasis in the desert surrounding Ba Sing Se, barely a half day from the gates. I sat on the flat sandy stones, absently fishing while Katara and Aang did bender things in the small pond. I looked up and glanced around the small tree ringed enclosure. The small pond in the middle was a few feet deep, more then shallow enough to wade across, though it would come up to my neck. The trees surrounding the area were a kind that I had never seen before. They looked almost normal, being tall and leafy and all, but the leaves were a pale almost sandy colour, and they were packed in pretty thickly for desert trees.

I had worked out for an hour or so after I was drawn out of my meditation by the gang moving around, getting ready for the day. I hadn't been sleeping well as of late; I have been having nightmares for the past few days. Every night the same bloody thing.

I hadn't had another encounter with the fleabag yet, but I'm expecting her any day now. Hell, I was completely taken by surprise when she didn't show up the moment I fell asleep the night of the Soudatsu championship. I remember she had been at the fight, and she never held anything back in torturing me yet, why was she staying away now? It's bothering me, especially with the dreams.

I moved a few feet to the left on pure impulse and smirked a little when not even a second later one of the water whips Aang and Katara were playing with slammed into the rocks ... in the exact place I had been sitting mere _moments ago_. Oh hell, I thought to myself with a roll of the eyes, all I needed now; more freakishness in my life. What, the talking prophesying cat wasn't enough? But after everything that has been happening I grumbled it off and stared down into the water. Stupid fish, bite the bloody line already.

"Well, you don't feel like a ball of nerves," said Toph in true sarcastic form, as she sat down on the rocks next to me. I grunted a response as she took off her sole-less shoes and dipped her feet into the cool water next to mine. I pulled up my line again and refreshed the bit of meat on the end before dropping it back in. Here fishies, have some nice tasty meat.

"Are they still worried about me?" I asked nodding over at Aang and my sister.

"Yes, they're still arguing about what happened, who should talk to you and _if_ they should talk to you." I nodded before turning back to my fruitless search for fish. Hell, the damn pond was probably so small the probably weren't any stupid fish anyway. Stupid pond. Toph continued. "Do you remember anything else yet?"

"Not really. I remember kneeling in front of you guys, that little conversation we had ... and then I was holding Senchi's neck to my sword and feeling like I had just swam up a waterfall," I paused for a moment. "Backwards. But ..."

"But?" Toph asked sounding curious.

"Remember when you said that when I needed to talk you'd listen?"

"Yeah?"

"Okay, I _have_ been having some weird dreams lately. But they _are_ just dreams, even if they are creepy as all hell"

"Pansy," mumbled Toph.

"What?" I asked, acting hurt.

"Nothing," she said sweetly, "Daffodil."

"I am not foliage," I cried as angry as I could while suppressing laughter.

"Right there ... dandelion."

"Why do you take such pleasure in my pain?" I wailed, pretending to cry.

"Suck it up, buttercup," Toph said evilly right before we both broke down in the giggles. We were getting strange looks from Aang and Katara by the time we calmed down. "Okay, dreams what do they have to do with anything?"

"Well," I started. "I – Remember you said that if I figured out what was happening to me that I should talk to you?"

"Yes, and I meant it," she said, her voice once again serious.

"Well, I guess – What I mean is I suppose that ... the dreams explain a lot of what has happened lately. Sort of."

"Well that wasn't cryptic _in the slightest. _Are we going to keep talking in riddles or are you gonna tell me what exactly was in them?"

I glared with a dark frown at my reflection while I tried to sort what I had seen into words. "I really don't know if you'll understand any of this, hell I don't understand any of whats happening to me, so if you come out of this thinking that I'm insane we're in the same boat." I received a confused nod when I looked back to her, gathering strength from her unseeing and unjudging eyes.

"They're odd, but familiar, like they're my memories from a long time ago. But considering what they're about that would be impossible." I paused for a moment, but I realized if I didn't push on I would get scared and not tell her anything. "It starts out different every time, but there seems to be a theme; I'm born. I never really see anything too detailed as my eyes are usually closed, but its weird and a little gross. The weird part is sometimes I don't think I'm exactly ... normal, sometimes it feel like I'm not built like I am now, like I have different body parts or hair that I can feel, and once in a while I'll see the faces of people I have never met before and feel a flicker of connection before I move on. I live the lives of hundreds of people; weird huh?"

Toph shrugged. "I've had weirder. Sometimes I dream of a marshmallow badger-mole in an Earth Kingdom naval cap destroying the middle ring of Ba Sing Se. That and Katara yelling something about not 'crossing streams' or something like it."

That was pretty damn weird, I had to admit. I felt slightly better, and pushed on.

"All right, you win on the weird count. The thing that bothers me isn't the weirdness though; it's how clear everything is. I remember what its like for a six year old girl to scrape her knee and have her mother kiss it better, I remember what it was like for a small boy to catch his first fish. But I also know what its like to be beaten by my father or sold as a slave," I shudder at a few of those memories. "I remember lots of small things; the kinds of memories that make you the person you are, whether it be a caring and considerate person or a heartless bastard. And it feels like I grow up in each of these bodies, experiencing all kinds of wonders and pains. I join them as they discover who they are."

"That doesn't sound scary," said Toph. Her expression was thoughtful. "Actually, that sounds kind of cool."

"No, that's the part of the dreams I don't mind; it's what comes after that's terrifying. Like being completely powerless as I'm being carried away by my older brother watching over his shoulder as my village is being burnt to the ground, with all of the people still in their beds. Holding the hands of a child as they slowly die in my arms because I couldn't find food or medicines. I was forced to watch people being tortured to death just because someone else demanded it, watch hundred of people being slaughtered in the name of one stupid war after another knowing that no matter how hard I try I will never be able to save them. But I try anyway."

Toph was listening, but I noticed the tiniest of smirks on her face. Usually her smirks are different, sharper than this one was. She opened her mouth and spoke. "That sounds like you."

I gave a small nervous laugh. "Yeah, I guess it does. I remember fighting with everything from knives to things that I couldn't even describe to you if I wanted, things that spit light and fire. I've fought hordes of soldiers to protect a single child or a family. I've stormed buildings and joined armies as they charge down the gauntlets of archers that line the streets of a dark city unlike anything I've ever seen before. I've heard the death gasps of those around me as we try to rescue the people being trapped there. The suffering isn't the worst though. It's the helplessness, and every time I see it happen I feel something taken away from me, until the only thing left is the hate. It's cold, Toph; so very cold."

I could feel the chills running up my spine as I thought about it. However, Toph sat nearly as still as a statue, only slight rise and fall of her chest indicating that she was still among the living. When I paused for too long, she made a 'continue' gesture. So I did.

"There is always a point in these lives I live, a moment where I and they become something much more than a person; more than human. It is always a time of great pain, with searing flame or a cold so deep I can't even name it, and I lived at the South Pole. Something – there's something that comes knocking at, well my soul I guess. If I allow the... entity into myself unimpeded I feel... It's like having your blood turn to magma in an instant. That's the best way to describe it, like your blood drying and turning to burning stone."

My hands clenched tightly on the fishing pole, remembering the pain. I am afraid to look at Toph for fear of losing my nerve to retell this, so I just pushed on. "If I resist, it's the cold that I hope you never feel. There's a struggle and the thing fights back, trying to conquer the conquerer. But it's funny; no matter how hard it fights, it's always so weak in that moment of change, that it is _always_ defeated when opposed. It's a mind game, a test I think. Either way, domination or submission, there is power Toph, so much power."

My eyes were unfocused by this point, and I couldn't keep the manic rush of the memories out of my voice. "I move faster than any man; a few times I sidestepped arrows that I only noticed a few feet away. I've ripped the blades from the hands of men who looked like they were standing still, I've felt attacks coming even before they come into my line of sight."

I turned my head slightly to look at her still impassive face, with wonder and fear in my voice despite myself. "Can you imagine it?"

"Yes," she said quietly. I was a little startled, not expecting a response, but that was all she said. Hurriedly I continued on.

"The entire time it's like there's something speaking to me through it all, whispering in my head. Only, its like we share the same heartbeat and thoughts, moving like we're one being. Together we've made war on the shores of dead lakes and on the sides of still mountains; and in every one of them I feel every wound, every lost companion and friend. In the last five nights, I've lived through war after war, hundreds of lives and every pain that comes with them."

I stumbled over my words for a moment as questions of my sanity once again rose to the surface. "Then there is a ... Great War. I plan the downfall of people I once called friends. I raised an army, Toph. An army that hasn't been seen before or since. I built them with science and rules I barely even can follow the basics of now. I created terrible weapons, things that can turn cities into glass, and scorch the skies into blackness."

There was shame in my voice as I recalled it in every painful detail. "I commanded men to attack temples and burn cities... I do all the things that tormented me in my own dreams. It seems like years pass as one bloody battle after another is declared either a victory or a failure, and more of my people die. To me... well, to me I guess it was just math, people's lives as simple numbers; and I hate it. Because the person giving orders isn't me- I'm just along for the ride."

I drew a deep breath and closed my eyes. "Finally, I am standing at the head of my army. I remember the smells of sea salt and musk, the way the setting sun reflected off the ocean. I was watching the ships come in. This final fight had been coming, ever since the Beginning; we all knew it was coming closer every day, the blood of hundreds of millions are on our hands, but even when it was finally there it seemed unreal. The f-first, th-" My voice breaks again as I look up to where Aang is standing waist deep in the water next to my sister, talking quietly to her. Both of them risking quick glances at me out of the side of their eyes; worried about me. I closed my eyes again, pulling up details as best I could manage.

"The first one off of the battle ship is a fire bender woman. I don't... I don't think that the continents looked like what they do now. I remember a land bridge connecting the Fire Nation and the Earth kingdom. I guess she was from where the Fire Nation is now. She was dressed in crimson battle amour and screams as she charges me down. At a mere gesture from her the ocean rises up behind her and crashes into the first rows of my soldiers."

I laughed then, and Toph gave me a strange look. I felt my voice changing as the memories became clearer. My tenor voice dropped about an octave, feeling rough and foreign in my own mouth. I hardly noticed. "But I am ready. The diversion worked perfectly, and for those hundred who died five times their number are given over to the Old Gods. Hundreds of them fall; it is glorious Toph, a triumph of military precision."

I hear the clashing blades and thrum of accelerator rifles as the humans die, their tainted blood spilling onto the shores of Yegoth, staining it's black sand a rusty brown with their numbers in a single instant. I brought myself back with a shuddering breath.

"The first skirmish only lasts twenty minutes, but thousands lie dead when their formation breaks apart and I stand facing the Avatar alone. Yasuragi decided in her 'infinite wisdom' that the test of our defenses had been 'sufficient'."

I snorted at the thought. The stupid bitch hadn't the slightest clue, and she'd wasted her men for nothing, but I supposed that was her prerogative. "As her army pulls back, behind her stand her four abominations leading a force twice as many as my own. I had never wanted a fight like this, I had a well orchestrated plan to kill her far away from here. I wasn't sure if I could take her in a straight fight."

I shook my head. I suppose there was no avoiding the inevitable. I felt a swell of pride as I remembered her hoarse challenge, and my own cool reply. "The first blow came much faster then I anticipated and we clash as we should; as gods, our soldiers battling around us. I still moved with the speed of lightning and the power of thunder but she is stronger, and I grew weary. Bit by bit the world crumbles, the skies burn and the earth darkens with blood as the mountains themselves fall upon me. The winds tear at me and the oceans start to cover the land. Fire burns the ground as my blade pierces flesh again and again even as my own blood darkens her hands."

I took another shaky breath and slowed my voice, trying to calm myself down. After what felt like a minute I opened my eyes and continued in as factual a way as I could. "The last true battle of the First Great War took sixty seconds from start to finish, and there is no victory for either side in this place; both champions lay dead. All around there is a panic; pandemonium as the few survivors run for the ships. Most of them never make it. The wildfires consume what the water has not yet reached. As many people died there as in the battle beforehand, until only a few score escape doomed Yegoth, turning back to watch it swallowed up by the crashing waves; taking both the Avatar and the Incarna with her."

The memory left me like the draining of an infected wound, and the tears on my cheeks were unfeigned. Stupid unmanly tears, but I hardly cared in that moment. Then the terrible pressure of the memories was gone, and all I felt was emotional exhaustion from what I had confided in Toph. I wasn't sure if I was going to regret my speaking, but I felt a sense of relief. I had just given her all of the proof she needed to ask the same questions that had been hounding me for a almost a week now. Was my sanity fraying? Was I going mad? Was I a danger to Aang?

Should they just leave me behind?

Still, the relief might just be worth the awful risk. I rubbed my temples as I looked over to her, meeting her eyes again. She seemed to be thinking, her brow crinkled as her eyes shifted slightly. I waited impatiently, my heart thundering in my ears. I didn't want them to leave me behind, but even I though it might be necessary. I feared what I was becoming more than anyone, likely.

"How sure are you that there memories?" she asked softly.

I swallowed hard. "Very."

She though for a moment, considering this. "You know that sounds crazy."

"I know," I said in a whisper, my fears crawling closer to the surface. "But there's more," I said, my voice shaking slightly.

"Oh?"

I closed my eyes, steeling myself, trying to force the words out. "Sometimes when I fall asleep at night I am in – uh – well, there's this little cat, Aang saw it too back before I entered the tournament, and it – well ... it said I was in the spirit world. That I was some ... potential host of a thing called the Incarna."

"Genzou?" she asked seriously

My mouth fell open and I jerked to face her so fast my neck popped. "How do you know that?"

"You talk in you sleep sometimes, and I'm a restless sleeper some nights."

"Oh," I said slowly, not really sure how to take this new development.

"So, the cat from the spirit world said you're supposed to become this Incarna guy?"

"Yeah," I said, not able to break eye contact with her anymore. Gods it sounded even more insane coming from her.

"I see," she replied very slowly. I didn't notice I was holding my breath until it started to burn. I forced myself to breath and tried to calm myself down. I didn't think they would abandon me, right? But if I was dangerous I might have to make that decision for them. They might accept me as family, but I could never put them in danger. Between me and them, it's them every time; not a second's hesitation.

"What do you think?" she asked honestly, her voice giving away nothing.

"About?" I asked slowly.

"Are you becoming this Incarna guy?"

My heart fell.

"You saw me at the Soudatsu," I said, my voice broken. "I... I like to think I'm a man of science, you know? I don't believe in most superstitious nonsense, but I can't deny this... this is real; I'm becoming a... monster and there's nothing that I can do to stop it."

"Do you really think your becoming a monster?" she asked, cocking her head to the side. It was such a friendly and familiar gesture I feel a little of the tension on my chest lift.

"I – I am – I," I stammered. She wanted an answer to the question I was fearing since we left Homarnu. I closed my eyes and turned away from her. "Yeah, you saw me. I wasn't... human. I'm becoming this beast, this... I don't know what."

"Sokka, I have known you for almost a year now, right?"

"Yeah," I said, keeping as much of my emotion out of my voice as I could.

"Then trust me when I say that you are the farthest thing from a monster there is. You are kind and gentle, putting your family and everyone close to you before yourself. You put all this effort into your hare-brained schemes if you think they even_ might _be the right thing to do. Did you see yourself after the fight? You ran yourself into the ground to try to get that damned prize money for us, we had to _carry_ your heavy ass into the hospital tent."

Now I was starting to feel a little better and worse at the same time. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to worry you guys. I just-"

"See," she shouted, cutting me off. "Right there!"

"Right – where?" I asked turning back to her, more then a little lost.

"We're here talking about you! We're here trying to decide if you are some kind of blood thirsty monster or not and you're still putting our feeling before your own!" she shouted, drawing a little attention from Aang and Katara. "Besides you freakin' idiot, if you really _were_ a monster, would you even bother to fucking think about it?"

"But, what if that's just the man that I _used_ to be, like pieces of a cocoon or something? What if I'm going to _change_ into it?" I asked a little louder then I intended as I tried to get her to see the truth. It was true, what if the '_gentle_' me was the person I used to be, what if that personality was fading away... like it felt like it was?

"Draw you sword," she said evenly.

"What?"

"I said draw your gods' damned sword, now!" Toph screamed, making me jump. She was getting pissed off. I felt a little twinge inside my chest at the though that I was the reason she was so distressed right now and felt the guilt and need to comfort her rise. I drew my sword from the scabbard over my back and looked at her, still confused as she stood up.

"Get up," she commanded, and I complied. Then she took me and -judging from the gasps coming from Aang and Katara- the others completely by surprise by roughly grabbing a hold of the sword my by the hilt, her strong slender fingers closing over my own, and brought the edge of my wickedly sharp black sword, a sword that had cut through normal steel with absurd ease, to her throat.

"Bloody hell, Toph; what the hell are you doing!" I cried as I tried to swiftly and carefully pulled the blade back.

"Don't pull it away!" she shouted at me, but as soon as I felt her fingers leave mine I tried to pull my blade away from her neck. "Leave it there!" she screamed. By now Aang and my sister were standing in the water, staring open mouthed at the sight of me with my sword at Toph's throat. They seemed too aghast by what they saw to do or say anything even though I was mentally begging them to stop this madness before I accidentally hurt Toph.

I held my shaky hands still and stared hard into her strong misty eyes, and was _just_ able to hold my ground when she took her hand away.

I stood there holding my breath once again, every muscle in my body locked and unmoving, fatigue setting in with an unusual speed. My sweaty hands keeping a firm grip on the blade pressed into Toph's tanned neck. Inside I was a wreck, I sharpened and cared for my sword everyday. I knew just how keen it was. I knew that if I were to slip up even slightly, a barest brush of the cold steel could rupture the pulsing jugular vain beneath my blade and it would be all over.

"If you won't listen to fucking reason then listen to this," she growled at me. I could feel the sound pulse through the steel of my blade. "I trust you with my life; we all trust you with our lives everyday and there is not a single second I regret or question my trust in you. You are Sokka of the Water Tribe, a kind and gentle man; not some fucking monster that time forgotthat needs to be watched like a rabid raccoon-dog. You have a soft heart, a hard head and there's no one else I would rather trust my life with. Have I made myself clear?"

Toph, small but unbelievably powerful Toph, the Warrior Toph spoke to me in a clear and completely calm voice even though I held her life at the end of my sword. She wasn't just _saying_ that she trusted me with her life, she was actually placing it right in my hands to do with what I will; because she had no doubt that I would never and could never hurt her.

In tormented inches I slowly lowered my black blade until the tip was touching the stone between our damp feet. I felt like an idiot. Not only did I get everything wrong, I was too scared to let the gang in on my fears.

"Do you understand now?" she asked still meeting my eyes as best she could.

I swallowed hard past the ball in my throat. "Yes, I was an idiot."

"Damn straight you were," she snorted

I laughed a little myself, feeling the weigh upon my heart lifting. Toph gave me one of her dangerous grins and I felt like I was floating again. I wasn't becoming a monster. They still trusted me and didn't want me to leave. We were still family. And unfortunately I was still an idiot. Guess some things never did change.

"So," I asked Toph, looking over her shoulder to where Aang and Katara were; presumably still trying to figure out what had just happened. "What happens now?"

"Now we figure out where that strength of yours comes from," she said.

"Um," I mumbled, confused again. "How?"

"Well, what were you doing when you first felt the... power, I guess," she asked, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

I scratched the side of my head just behind my ear, trying to figure out where she was going with this. "I was, Uh – It was when I was fighting Senchi for the championship match so ..." then it dawned on me. "Oh, hell no! I am not trying to call _that _out of me to fight you!" I cried, some of the tightness coming back to my chest. Given how many times Toph got what she wanted from me I really didn't like where this was going.

"First off, I though we worked through this. _You do not have a monster inside of you, you freakin' moron!_" she yelled back. Aang and Katara who had been creeping forward slightly jumped back at the anger in Toph's voice. Deciding we weren't done our 'aggressive negotiations' yet they backed up to where they were before hand and watched carefully. I'm pretty sure they knew exactly what we were talking about now, after all neither I nor Toph were being too quiet about it ... _so why didn't one of them come over her and scream some sense into Toph!_

_"And second, I thought we already established that I trust you," Toph growled up at me, making me cower slightly._

"Just because you trust me, that doesn't mean I trust me," I shot back.

Then Toph did something I had never seen her do before. In the middle of a fight where she believed she was right, she stopped arguing -became _silent- _and looked at me for a long time, thinking. I was so taken by surprise that I lost all my fight and forgot what I wanted to yell about next.

"Do you trust me?" she asked finally.

"Yes," I said immediately. A moment later I smirked, "completely. Do you got something pointy I can hold to my throat to prove it?"

"Smart ass," Toph said, mirroring my smirk. Again a quiet descended upon us. "If you really trust me then trust that I will not let you get out of control even if you lose it."

"But what if I'm too powerful?"

"Sokka," She said in an exasperated voice. Cue the instant stupid feeling again. "You're fighting me. And thats not counting Katara, and might I remind you we also have the Avatar with us?"

"But-" I started again. There had to be something about this that was tremendously idiotic; I just couldn't put my greasy little fingertips on it yet. It was like trying to gasp onto a greased otter-penguin. One with a nasty kick.

"C'mon Sokka, do you really think you could flip out and all of us together would not be able to subdue you?" asked Toph.

I didn't know how else to explain it rather then to just say it.

"Genzou also said something else too," I said looking down at the tip of my black sword as it dug slightly into the hard stone.

"Oh?" Toph asked, aching an eyebrow.

"She said that I'm the one destined to resurrect the old ways and to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Avatar as he faces the coming darkness."

Toph thought about this for a long time, long enough for Katara and Aang to once again work up the nerve to come closer. "So, she said that you might be near Avatar strength?"

"Yeah, well eventually ... I think. Maybe."

"You know what I like most about you?" she asked mildly. I shook my head, and her face twisted in a slight frown. "The gods' damned certainty. Well if it's true, then all the more reason for you to find out where this power is coming from and how to control it."

"But, what if I-"

"Sokka," Toph shouted. I stopped talking and just froze for a moment. "Do you really think your going to win this argument?"

I opened my mouth to try to continue, but then my mind caught up with my mouth. Oh hell, sometimes I hate knowing so many things. I sighed deeply, letting my shoulders slouch in defeat. "No."

"And am I right?"

"Yes."

"And are you being stupid again?"

"Yes."

"And am I the Queen, meaning you must bow to me and do anything I say?"

"Yes – w-wait what?" I stammered, just realizing what she said.

"Too late!" she shouted, glee back on her face. "I am your Queen and I rule you, little man!"

I chuckled, "me little? I'm taller then you."

"Oh yeah?" she asked wickedly, that wild grin on her face again. Oh crap, this isn't going to turn out good. "By decree of her majesty all people must walk around on their knees!" she roared, followed by a mad cackle.

"No way Queeny," I said smirking

"I said on you knees," Toph yelled, laughing. Then next thing I knew the earth beneath my feel opened up and I feel into a hole with a startled shout, right up to my knees. So here I was, standing in a hole. Great.

"Alright Queeny, you win." I said from my place in the earth, looking up at her. Total defeat, not pleasant. But meh, it's Toph, like hell I could win. Some part of me didn't even want to.

Toph crossed her arms importantly and nodded.

"Good, my subject. Now come," She said grabbing me by my wolf-tail and pulling me out of the ground with a quiet pop. I stood up straight again and dusted off my legs, then noticing one of my shoes was gone I went back to the hold I was just rescue from and reached in to retrieve my footwear. I slipped my shoe back on and looked up, seeing that Toph had already taken up a fighting stance a dozen or so feet from me. "Hey, Sugar Queen and Twinkle Toes, get your scared asses over here."

I wanted to protest, I couldn't stand it if I hurt her, and we had no idea what I was capable of with that strange power, but it seemed I had no choice in the situation. So, I picked up my sword and walked a few feet in the other direction. It was here that Katara and Aang finally decided to speak up.

Great timing guys, thanks for your earlier bloody moral support.

"What do you two think you're doing?" asked Katara with an edge of annoyance in her voice.

"Uh, I know you two were arguing, but don't you think you're taking it a bit far?" asked Aang looking more then a little worried. I smiled slightly. Good ol' Aang; interfering in the argument _after _it was over.

"Sokka's going to try to call out that power he had at the tournament and he wants you two to make sure he doesn't flip out," said Toph, stating everything as lightly as though she were commenting on the weather. Oh, I hope this doesn't come back to bit me in the ass, but knowing my luck – No, don't think about your luck Sokka. That always goes to the bad place; the kind of place where you end up sucking on frogs.

"What?" asked my sister, getting that squinty-eyed look that usually meant bad things. Like a dramatic increase in localized tsunami activity. I am not thinking about my crummy luck, everything is going to turn out dandy ... ah, crap.

"Sokka, what are you two talking about," Katara asked.

I sighed, getting that creepy feeling on the back of my neck that meant that life was about to take another swing at me. "We were talking and we decided-"

Toph coughed loudly and I scowled. "Alright, Toph told me I was being an idiot for fearing what I was becoming and for fearing that you guys would leave me, or worse; that I would hurt you. So, apparently we're going to spar and I am going to try to call out-"

"If you say monster I'm going to smash you," Toph said seriously.

"-the power again."

For a long time there was nothing, not even a bird chirped.

"What?" asked Katara, her face contorted in confusion. Alright, backing up.

"Remember that last fight I had with that pompous looking guy? Well, I'm not to sure how, but I managed to tap into some-something," I finished lamely, watching their expressions very carefully.

"And now he's getting all worried thats he's turning into a monster and I gotta slap some sense into him," shouted Toph with an evil smirk.

"Yes," I said slowly, not able to deny anything in there. "That too."

"So..." said Aang slowly. "What are we going to be doing?"

"You and Katara are going to be watching us, ready to jump and and stop me if I lose it," I stated, wishing that it didn't come to that.

"Sokka," said my sister, getting my attention. When I looked over she had that motherly look on her face again. "You have nothing to worry about, Toph is a bending master, pretty much a prodigy. There is nothing you _could_ do to hurt her. I mean, you've gotten a lot better with weapons, but this is a whole other level."

"Wow, Katara; he's your brother, shouldn't you know him better then anyone?" asked Toph with a chuckle. "We have sparred a few times before now and I must admit he almost got me quite a few times. He's been the best work out I've had in months, and I know for a fact that he never even got close to the speeds that he touched when he got a hold of this weird strength the first time."

Katara looked conflicted between looking pissed and thoughtful at that comment, and Aang just looked slightly amazed. "Really! wow, Sokka, coming from Toph thats a very nice compliment, _isn't it?_" he asked wiggling his eyebrows at me. I immediately felt my face burn slightly, I _really_ got the wrong meaning from that. I chanced a quick glance at Toph and saw her eyes on me -as much as they could be- with a matching blush.

Bloody hell, now she was embarrassed for me.

A loud slapping sound pulled my attention bad to my sister just as she pulled her hand back from slapping the back of Aang's head. What the hell was that about?

"What do you think your you doing?" hissed Katara. Hurray, her anger was pointed somewhere else besides me! Oh, and poor Aang. I chuckled evilly in my own mind. Yes, poor Aang indeed.

"What?" Aang said, rubbing that back of his head. "Your the one who said that Toph was-"

Quite suddenly Aang was swallowed up by the earth just as Katara screamed "Shut up!" and dove to clamp her hands over his mouth. But as Aang had just fallen into a hole and Katara was headed towards him when it happened, she also fell into said hole with a squeak when she hit the bottom, on top of a groaning Aang.

I leaned a bit closer, trying to see the bottom of the hole.

"Ow, what did Toph do that for? I was trying to help."

"That wasn't helping!" shouted Katara. "That was as blunt as an avalanche!"

"But your the one who said that Sokka was the dumbest smart person you had ever met for not seeing that-"

"Shut up, Aang before you say it."

"So? All these plans and plots are confusing. Just have her tell him that-" suddenly the hole sealed over and nothing could be heard. I looked over at the still blushing Toph.

"What the hell was that about?" I asked slowly as I tried to piece it together. What could have gotten that out of Toph right before a spar? I couldn't think of much. I filed it away in my growing 'deal with later' pile.

"Nothing," said Toph a little to quickly.

"But, it sounded like-"

"You wanna go in the hole too?" she threatened. I cowered as all thoughts were shoved from my mind.

"No, Queeny."

-

Mai

I watched the last of the Sixth Dragon of the Imperial Army board its airships in silence. I turned with a sneer to look at the 'special operations' staff that I had been given command of for the time being. There were about twenty of them, all hardened killers, all expert trackers and stealth experts. Their guise varied from the eccentric to the obscene, and all variations that could fall between them. Notable figures included arguably the most effective mass combat specialist in the Fire Nation, a master of a forbidden technique that caused massive explosions to occur at a distance, focusing the attacks through his crown chakra. A smattering of Gel Hassad assassins sat there as well, including the Black Twins, a pair of soul bonded Gel Hassad warriors. The two of them sent shivers down my back.

Soul bonding is a uniquely Gel Hassad art, one of the few remaining to us after all these long years. In ages past, I suppose it had been used to bond together powerful strike teams, giving it's members not just a physical blood bond but a terrifying spiritual bond. In essence, performing the seals of the Soul Bond created essentially one soul that inhabited multiple bodies. Not only that, but there was a link between them that gave them energy and strength. When one was injured, they would heal more quickly and more effectively than an un-bonded individual. Even in the modern day there were accounts of incredible recoveries from things as horrific as broken backs and shattered rib cages; things that not even master water benders could heal reliably. In addition there was a form of communication between them. They could literally speak without words across any distance that we'd ever tested. Such abilities came with a price, however. They shared a lifespan, both of them pooling the years of their lives together. Their great healing factor drained that life, taking years from their lives to keep them alive through the worst injuries. There were rumors of other upsides, things about physical intimacy being amplified and such, but I'd never been tempted. I didn't want to rely on anyone that much. The idea frankly scared me.

Then there was also my least favorite Gel Hassad; an ornery bitch of a woman, but the best tracker I had ever met. Gods damn her. Jun Xia Sai was a Radical, one of the least ethical factions of the Gel Hassad and by far the most violent. She was a poster child in some ways; she was successful, and her beast that she'd bred using Old One techniques was without a doubt a fine creation; though why she called it Shu-Shu was beyond me. The Radicals believed that they should use the ancient techniques however they pleased. I figured that would either get us all killed or worse, let loose a plague of engineered beasts like those of the Great Divide that the Old Ones had seeded. It was no accident that when they had scourged the cradle of Man with fires from the skies, it became infested with burrowing, flesh eating monsters the size of rail cars.

The Old Ones were great believers in thoroughness.

I stalked back along the observation deck's walkway, past each of the varied mercenaries and assassins. I stopped as I passed by June.

"Hello Jun," I growled. The bounty hunter smirked at me. Old Ones damn the Radicals and all that they stood for.

"Hello Mai," she responded with a toss of her long hair. It covered a scar I'd once given her when she argued in the Great Council. Good shot for a ten year old, I figured; damn good. It'd nearly taken out her eye. "I hear you are a _favored companion_ of Prince Zuko."

"Yeah?" I responded in as bored a tone as I could manage.

"Oh, did he never tell you about our great adventure?" she asked sulkily. Her voice was just quiet enough that the nearest others couldn't hear. She pouted at me, and it must have hurt like hell. "He asked me to track down an old girlfriend. Something about her running off with another man. Very sad, really. Wonder if she left him because of his... well, ghk!"

The pitiful squeaking noise she made as my outstretched had closed around her throat was quite satisfying. I had my head at an angle perpendicular to the one she was looking, and as such all she could see of my face was in profile. I moved my eye to track her while holding my head absolutely still and quickly blinked my sclera, revealing the blood red eyes of my legacy. I only had three words for her, really.

"Too far bitch."

She made another squeaking sound as she brought her arm around and wrapped it around my own. She was strong, stronger than me by a lot, but I had the leverage this time. I twisted, and no matter how strong she was, she didn't weigh any more than me, probably less. She hit the deck plates with a thud and instantly stopped struggling when she saw the fistful of knives I had clutched between my fingers level at her beautifully pale neck.

"Let this be a lesson," I said calmly. "On insubordination."

I took the knives and delicately drew blood from her fragile looking throat. I didn't bother to look up and see if any of the others were looking. I knew they were. Time to get control of this mob of scum. "If anyone else wants to try to test me, go right ahead. However, I'm not the one paying you. I'm the one leading you, and let me make it perfectly clear that if you don't do your jobs, or give me any difficulty at all, I will cease to value your lives. If you cross me, like this stupid bitch has, then I'll kill you. It doesn't get any simpler."

The explosives expert with the eye tattoo on his forehead actually laughed; it was the first time I'd ever seen him make an expression other than a focused scowl. The Black Twins lounged against one another in a manner that left the nature of their relationship a mystery to no one. They barely seemed to notice that I'd almost slit another woman's throat right in front of them. The rest looked suitably spooked. I'd just thrown off the image of a teenage girl, and become an ageless killer. The effect on their attention span was most pleasing.

"Excellent," I said, standing up and dusting off the bottom part of my robes, while I stowed my knives again. "Now that I have your attention, here's the story. You will be the 'team' in charge of retrieving 'persons of interest' to the Fire Lord. We have a list that will be updated once we're dirt side in Ba Sing Se. I don't really care how you do your job, and the Fire Lord cares less than I do. Find them and bring them back; but bring them back alive."

I gave the Black Twins a sharp look when I said this. They weren't known for their careful attitude towards human life. They nodded, however. They got the message. I pulled a scroll out of my robes and tossed it to the explosives expert.

"Here is our current list. I've done my own recommendations on who should be hunting what, but if you have suggestions, I will give them due weight and consideration," I said. At this I stepped down hard on Jun's hand that had been wandering slowly towards her belt. I ground my heel into her hand. "That is all. We will meet again in twenty four hours, at that time initial assignments will be finalized. Get to know your targets ladies and gentlemen. Lord Ozai is paying a pretty penny for you. It would be a shame if you weren't able to collect due to... unfortunate circumstance."

I removed my heel from Jun's hand and whirled to stalk out of the room. I had no doubts that they would be ready when the time came. For all their juvenile behavior, they were some of the best at what they did in the world. It would be more than sufficient to fulfill the task that Ozai needed them for. I was about midships, and feeling very satisfied with myself, when it hit me.

I gasped and fell to my knees as a pressure wave rammed into my body, pressing down on my shoulders. I gritted my teeth, and attempted to stand up, but I couldn't budge. Something with enormous spiritual presence was here, right now. I felt the baleful focus on me. With a grunt of effort I raised my hands and quickly sketched one of the few Spirit Shaping spells I knew on the nearby bulkheads. There was a release of some kind, and I nearly leaped to my feet when the pressure cut off suddenly.

My head now raised I _saw_ it. I must have reflexively released my sclera, bringing the spiritual world into slightly better focus. It floated in front of me for an instant, something ancient and indescribable. There were tentacles and barbed, piercing tendrils wavering around it in a halo, fur and teeth, a mix of a thousand traits. All of this centered around a single luminescent blue eye, whose so utterly human pupil, somehow more terrifying for it's familiarity in such a strange setting, regarded me with all of the respect I gave an ant. I saw my wards sparking and actually glowing into the_ visible _spectrum as they tried to restrain the focus of the beast. I am not too proud to say that in that moment I had a shameful lapse of resolve. I screamed like an eight year old girl. The eye blinked once, and then was gone, my warding shimmering out of existence in the same moment.

I collapsed to my hands and knees, retching from the overwhelming stress of it's presence. I was distantly glad I hadn't had lunch earlier. I heard guards scrambling in alert, and booted feet pounded on deck plating. However, even though I noticed all of this, only one thing came out of my mouth.

"What the _fuck_ was that?"

-

Sokka

It was twenty minutes or so before we were all ready once again. Toph made me walk a short distance away before she pulled Aang and Katara up out of the hole. I still had no idea what the hell was going on with those three. I was feeling really out of the loop now. But anyway, finally I was standing across from Toph, my sword still sheathed and a wicked grin on her face.

"Ready Snoozles?" she asked, still smirking. It was staring to worry me a little.

"I suppose," I replied. Then I looked over my shoulder to where Katara and Aang were standing, "you guys ready?"

"Yeah," said Katara exasperatedly, "but I still think this is overkill."

"I'd rather have overkill then the alternative," I said, locking eyes with Toph again just as she dropped into her familiar fighting stance. I pulled my own sword out of the scabbard with a metallic ringing noise and squared off in a basic Water tribe stance; my feet shoulder width apart with knees slightly bend, and my sword held one handed slightly to my right.

"Ready, daffodil?"

"Hells yeah, Queeny," I chuckled as I tensed, waiting for the first blow. I expected Toph to launch right into an attack, and I wasn't disappointed.

Almost immediately Toph swung her right arm in a wide arc and a rumble came from the earth behind me. I whirled around as fast as I could and, using the flat of my blade, deflected the thin column of earth that was coming at my chest. The moment I diverted away that blow I heard another similar attack from my left. Spinning fast, I repeated the deflection with the resonating ring of steel filling the air. The long column of earth shattered into clods and fell back onto the ground, useless until Toph breathed life into it once again.

Damn, I'm thinking too much. I'll be smashed that way. More columns of earth erupted from the earth and came at me, and I attacked with as much grace as I could and deflected every one of them. Toph was opening with a very basic attack designed to gage the speed and strength of her opponent, once she had that, the real fight would start.

Quite suddenly two walls, well over seven feet tall rose up on either side of me, leaving Katara and Aang at one entrance, and Toph grinning at the other. "Better call out that power fast," she said sweetly.

Oh hell, that can't be good.

I looked up and saw nothing but the clouds rolling past the tops of the walls, but then something slammed into the back of my head – _hard_. I spun around quickly, sword at the ready to block the next attack, but saw nothing.

"The hell?" I asked no one. Suddenly, something hard hit the center of my back right between my shoulder blades, knocking me forward. I turned as fast as I could, already swinging my sword, and again I saw nothing.

"Confused Snoozles?" Toph asked, her voice echoing slightly in the stone hallway.

"A little," I admitted, right before it hit me, literally. A column of earth bent right out of the wall, smashed into my face, and retracted back. Through the stars I noticed that the wall looked exactly how it did before. That was how she was doing it. This was a gauntlet designed to attack from all sides at once. Clever. Good thing I'm smart too once you hit me in the head a bunch of times. Not to mention fast.

I took a cleansing breath and let my eyes drift most of the way closed, preparing for the next strike. My eyes few open as my breath caught in my throat. I felt it, something cold deep inside my chest. It was gone in an instant, but I could feel that wherever that came from, my power came from the same place.

I was so focused on the thing inside me I almost forgot about the world around me; so when nearly a dozen earth spears erupted from the walls and tried to stab me I was only _just_ able to get battle ready before the first one neared me. I was a cyclone of black steel glittering in the morning sun. My blade flew everywhere at once, deflecting strikes with almost beautiful precision. I dropped to one knee, ducking under two spears, letting them destroy themselves while I cleaved the four others coming at my knees before I back flipped just as the space I occupied only second previously was filled violently.

I was grinning like a madman as the earth flew, almost completely obstructing my vision, but I still never missed a strike. It was as though there was another force guiding my hand, leading it to the next closest strike without my knowledge or will. My warriors instincts.

No, another name came to me from deep inside my consciousness.

The Void. I was tapping into something called the Void. I was reaching out and grasping this power that existed somewhere outside the mortal realm and pulling it into myself, letting it guide my hand and power my muscles. I tore through another mass attack from these walls, but it was different this time. This time the speed that the earth moved at was greatly decreased, or I was getting faster... much faster.

I felt that small cold spark deep inside my chest again. This time I continued to fight the gauntlet, not hesitating or trying to force anything, and slowly, _ever so slowly_ ... the spark grew, becoming a flame of the coldest ice. My hands tightened on the leather wrapped grip of my blade as the air temperature slowly dropped around me. There was something scratching at the back of my mind, something enormous. But blocks, conscious or unconscious were holding it back for now.

My heart was pounding, blood was rushing in my ears. I was feeling more alive then  
ever, like I was finally becoming what I was always destined to be. It sounded corny even to _me, _but I knew that it was true, on a very deep level. I was always meant to be this; the Incarna, this force of nature. I felt a thrill of exhilaration; then something Genzou said to me surfaced;_ 'power can corrupt the most noble of us, you are no exception'._ The thought chilled me, and drove any vain notions from my head like a wave of ice water.

Another barrage of earth came at me from behind and I barely had to react they were going so slow. I slapped away the first one with the edge of my blade before I slid it back into its sheath. I don't need a weapon anymore, not right now anyways. Weapons were killing tools and right now I was sparring friends. I bent and twisted, my feet skimming over the surface of the earth, kicking up small clouds of dust as I dodge each spear of compressed earth and stone with almost lazy grace. It was like a dance that I knew all of the steps to.

Then the numbers came.

I was always told I was a smart man, a born thinker. When I couldn't fight along side the others against the Fire-Nation that was what they told me. But now all of the numbers and knowledge that I had accumulated over the last few years filled my mind to a point I had never felt before, scrolling in front of the corners of my vision like a curtain of numbers and symbols; numbers and symbols that I could understand.

Memories began to flash through my mind, organizing themselves and becoming the subject of analysis. Every time I had ever watched Toph fight, whether it be against Fire-Nation soldiers or Earth Kingdom Dai-Li scrolled past my minds eye as my hands continued the fight without me. Dozens of stances, hundreds of moves and thousand of attacks ran past the deepest parts of my mind, past the calculating coldness in the back of my head. Each and every move I had ever seen Toph make was broken down into a column of numbers that filled my head and organized itself into the foreground of my consciousness, to be judged and sorted with my mind to ensure no heartless decisions were made.

In one hundredth of a second I had calculated the most probable attacks and fighting patters Toph would come at me with. I was ready for anything she might throw at me for the next one hundred and thirteen seconds. A short time, yes; less than two minutes. It was not longer because an extensive cross-calculation of my attacks and revelation of abilities against her expected fighting patterns predicted that she would either call for assistance from Katara or Aang before launching into a _new_ pattern yet uncalculated or continue the attack with something completely new and off the cuff. Improvisation was the bane of logic, I supposed. The addition of my sister or the Avatar would add a new variable to the equation, calling for yet more reassessment. I came back to myself just as the earth that had been raised against me fell back to the ground, shattered and broken.

A flash of movement up and to my left drew my attention. Looking up, I only got a fraction of a glimpse of something large. It was covered in fur and enough muscles to be unnatural, and it had been hovering above Toph like some sort of guardian angel. Something deep in the back of my mind stirred.

_Jenkotsu_; the Four Fists, _Henkotsu_; the Four Sensei's, and the _Ger-ghanim _the four that were their Yang reflection, the servants of the Incarna.

The _Henkotsu_, the ancient teachers of the Avatar, one for each element. Optimally designed around the same power core and operational parameters as the AVATAR subsystems and woven into the same command matrix, they were able to call upon the same incredible powers that the Avatar himself could. It was a power system completely separate from that of the normal Benders.

Memories flashed and information shifted through my mind like the gears of the Inventor's machines. I reached an inescapable conclusion meshed with a memory not my own; the network was in the temples. When Aang had gone crazy at the Air Temple and accessed the Avatar State, the skies had lit up like the dawn: the pulsing crystals, the storm of light, all of it. It was the network of power celebrating and honoring its long lost master's return. The Avatar had his own source of power.

Just like I did.

Memories flashed by in a blur, and calculations were adjusted faster than an eye blink. Though I had always considered her highly, I now saw what she could become; and I was almost afraid. One _Henkotsu_ had murdered over thirty fire benders during Sozin's comet. By all regards, he shouldn't have been able to kill a single one. Giyatsu had been powerful, able to tap the same primal matrix as the Avatar. Little Toph, Warrior Toph, was probably easily among the fifteen most powerful fighters in creation; by two orders of magnitude, by my calculation.

I shot backwards as fast as I could, and with all of the power I had just found, it was pretty fast. My feet seemed to almost be skimming across the top of the ground. I spun around just as I reached the other end of the gauntlet where Aang and Katara stood. Again I caught a glimpse of something large hovering in the air, this time over Katara. But instead of the hulking monster I saw over Toph, this thing looked a wispy and deadly thing, like a rapier sword, deceptively thin and delicate looking.

I risked a look at Aang and didn't like what I saw. He was looking at me with a hard, but far away expression on his face while rubbing his left temple. His memories were trying to resurface. Something told me that could be a bad thing. This same knowledge told me that perhaps this was what I ought to have been worried about.

_No_, my mind countered; this was Aang we were talking about here. I was in no more danger from him than he was from me.

I skidded to a stop at the mouth of the gauntlet, facing back the way I came, looking Toph dead in the eye. My fingers worked eagerly at my sides; this was actually starting to be... fun?

"Hey, you ain't done are you Sokka?" asked Toph smirking. I grinned wickedly back. She would break me if she even heard me say it, but Toph was smaller and weaker then almost every opponent she had ever faced, she always had been. It was because of this she always had to develop the most devastating and destructive attacks she could think of. She had never had to learn close in combat control, only mastery of ranged combat; this was her downfall. She had a zone around her, a ring near her body that she couldn't defend with the flashy and powerful attacks she was used to. She had to use finesse and more importantly, hand-to-hand. All that power served her well, she could take almost anything thrown at her. But she wasn't one for in close fights.

Sixteen inches. Forty point six four centimeters.

I needed to get inside that perimeter, once there she had no way to defeat me. I let my grin widen.

"Sokka?" said Katara, sounding slightly confused. I turned around just enough to see her out of the corner of my eye. Again I just caught a glimpse of something, a deathly blue hovering above her.

"Everything's fine," I said, liquid and hissing syllables sliding easily off the tongue. They echoed in the artificial canyon, distorting strangely. Katara's eyes went wide at the alien words coming from my mouth. The words in my head and the ones coming from my mouth were completely different. The Old Tongue, I realized with a start, the ancient language before Man. My thoughts were moving in such a way that I could not speak my native tongue no matter how hard I tried. Something about the limitations inherent in lesser tongues, efficiencies in calculation, and a host of other weird things that I really didn't remember clearly. I guess it was kind of like how Aang's Avatar state had almost no facial expressions, a weird little quirk of the gig.

I turned back to Toph and saw her still grinning face. "Still think you're a monster?"

Four point six percent maximum capacity; initial system overrides engaged. All subsystems functioning within acceptable parameters.

I shrugged noncommittally and she shook her head. "Alright, I guess we'll have to keep going, huh?" I widened my fighting stance slightly in response. "Kay Snoozles lets go."

"Lets get psycho," I said calmly, feeling the strange words roll of off my tongue like I had spoken this language all of my life. Then without a warning of any kind I started to jog toward her, my sword still sheathed over my back.

"What, no sword?" she asked, an edge in her voice. "Don't you think you'll need it?"

"You're not my enemy," I said, knowing she couldn't understand the words but hoping that she got the meaning. Judging by the slight frown on her face she sort of did, but was also slightly pissed off at me for going easy on her. I nodded slightly, she would know why I put away my blade in six seconds.

I re-entered the gauntlet and almost immediately I was attacked by a dozen more spears from the earthly walls. I danced around them; minimal effort expended. Nearly every move and trajectory had been previously calculated, and it was nothing for me to do a few quick corrections on the rare occasions that something unexpected came.

I sped my jog into a full run and ran straight up the left wall, before kicking off -the earth reaching for me to pull me back down- and landed on the branches of one of the trees surrounding the oasis. I quickly tracked and plotted the best route to my goal and calculated all of the angles and speeds I would need even before my foot touched the bark. I held my place for exactly one second, watching the confusion develop on Toph's face when she didn't feel me touch back down.

Thirty two seconds.

Five point two percent maximum capacity; initial overrides holding in stable configuration. All subsystems functioning within acceptable parameters.

I ran across the tree line, my feet connecting with the rough bark silently. No noise; Toph might not be able to see me, but she could still hear me coming if I wasn't careful. I shot a quick glance back and met Katara's wide eyes and gaping mouth. I smiled at her reassuringly and waved as I negotiated my way through the tight branches, not even watching where I was going.

I dropped from the trees inside Toph's weak zone, crouching slightly, our noses almost touching and enjoyed her gasp of surprise. "Oh, shit," she said.

Thirty eight seconds. She now knew why I didn't need my sword. Oh well, at least the epiphany of her greatest weakness happened against me and not some enemy. It didn't stop her from trying to smash me. I laughed cheerful as she called up the earth to try to swat me away from her. I moved with the whispers of the winds, dancing around her attacking form with calculated ease, I even beeped her nose once. She punched me in the chin the next time I tried that. Damn, I had all of the knowledge and mind of ... whatever the hell I was, and she still surprised me at every turn. Sweet, that's my Toph.

I twirled around and and flipped over her head, landing behind her. She turned quickly, pulling up a chuck of earth to hit me with. But the earth she called was too close to her weak zone and it was too clumsy and poorly made. She had to hold back power not only for fear of hurting me, but for the fact that she hadn't studied the kind of control that she needed to manipulate the earth that close to herself. She could hurt herself as well as me inside her weak zone. I easily ducked it and tapped the backs of her knees, knocking her to the ground.

She got back up gracelessly and tried to roll back from me, to get some distance from me so that she could launch a proper attack. But I stayed right with her every step of the way, within those sixteen inches.

"Fa'teh R'lleth?" I asked in a smart ass tone. I supposed it meant 'are you having fun?', but there was a connotation of 'you idiot' attached to the phrase. Man, this language had all kinds of nifty insults you could use with it. Toph seemed to get the gist though. It wasn't hard, really.

"Cram it, Sokka." she cursed before trying to kick me in the ankle, but I just flipped over her again and chuckled. More attacks, either crumbly rock or small fists were easily dodged as something started to shimmer over us; correction, over her. For a further sixty two seconds we fought, well ... danced more then fought, but either way she never landed even a glancing hit on me, and by the end she was giving it her all.

Sweat shown on her face and exposed arms as she growled. I sidestepped another column of earth, and beeped her nose again. She almost smiled before she stopped and almost seemed to deflate, I had fought Toph, my warrior Toph to a stalemate. I could have easily beaten her, she knew it, but I didn't. So Queeny, what now? She attacked again, and I continued to skim the earth around her, keeping inside the sixteen inch border.

One hundred and thirteen seconds.

"I need a little help, I can't stop him!" Toph shouted over her shoulder to Katara and Aang. Toph was ginning like a madwoman now even as she fought one of the hardest fights of her life, she hadn't even scored a hit on me since I accessed the Void but she was ecstatic. I was holding back just enough to not seriously hurt her, I think, but I was giving her everything she could handle. I understood her power and embraced it, responded to it in full. I wasn't treating her like she was delicate or weak. I mirrored her grin chuckling slightly and drew a similar sound from her lips. we stopped as one and stood motionless.

I followed Katara and Aang with my eyes as they moved into places around me. I turned back to Toph, taking a last second of peace being so close to her before I backed out of her weak zone, drawing my sword as I did.

"So, think you need the sword for all three of us?" she asked playfully.

"Sokka, are you okay?" asked my sister.

Toph rolled her eyes and I laughed again. "Yes Katara, its still Sokka in there. I just hit the wall here; I need your help to pull out his full power so the pansy realized he isn't a monster."

Me, the scion of the great Incarna, very maturely stuck my tongue out at Toph. Aang snorted; it was all very professional.

"Why can't he speak?" asked Aang. I thought I saw something strange around him, kind of like an aura but the next second it was gone.

"I dunno," said Toph. "Lets get this done and then we can ask him about it later, you know, when he can answer us in a language we can understand?"

"Oh, yeah," snickered Aang.

So, I'm going to spar the Avatar and two of his Henkotsu huh? Well, better get a little more serious. I closed my eyes and let out a slow breath, knowing it misted before my face.

"Whoa, what was that?" asked Katara.

"He did that at the tournament too, right before he kicked at other guys ass," said Toph. I put all of them out of my mind for the moment and tried to fan the cold flames inside me. I could use a bit more power against all three of them at once. Did I stand a chance against all of them? I don't know. If they were all at full power, _hells no_. But whatever it was inside me that kept making all of these calculations told me that Aang was at roughly twenty eight percent, Toph was at thirty, and Katara was at forty two percent. Percent of what? Their full potential of course. But how did I know what they could become, what their full abilities were?

Seven point four percent maximum capacity; secondary overrides engaged. All subsystems functioning within acceptable parameters. Archival access initialized; up-link status- engaging; up-link complete.

The Archive.

The source of the memories, the source of the dreams. It was my memory, storage device, and calculation array all in one, a construct of ten thousand angles outside of the mortal realm, in the place of Spirits. It was a... a computer I suppose. My other memories supplied the analogy and definition. A device that was abacus, written record, and oral tradition all in one. Some part of me knew that there was thousands of years of accumulative knowledge was stored in the Archive, and now I had access to it all.

Okay; I was missing something, I needed someone to explain all of this crap to me.

Wait, I _was_ missing something. I sorted through random information, looking for the source. The Archive complied grudgingly. I guess no one had ordered it around like this in a long time. Somehow I knew that I was missing a huge part of what I was supposed to be. It felt like there was supposed to be another consciousness with me, someone to guide me and explain all of this to me. Someone to help me make decisions and to strengthen my body to hold all of the power that was at my fingertips. An advisor, a brother, a friend and a teacher. I was missing something, someone, a piece of myself.

Suddenly the whispers that I had barely noticed came together for a single moment in my time of confusion and gave voice to the answer the Archive had provided.

_'The White Wolf'_

The wolf? A white wolf? The white wolf that was always with Genzou? He was the link to the power. No, he _was_ the power, as I conceived it. I was the body, the vessel. I was the molder of the power, I made it good or evil. He was where the strength came from. We were to be a symbiosis.

I winced in pain as something slammed into the back on my mind with little grace. There were other things coming to the surface from deep within the Archive now, memories?

I understood now what the dreams had shown me; I knew how the Incarna Spirit worked, how it manifested and how it worked; how it thought, and more importantly what it could do if uncontrolled by an iron will.

My eyes opened slowly as the grass around my feet curled over, covered in frost. My sister gasped as spider-frost crept down my blade blade, turning it a frigid gray. Aang winced as though he had a piercing headache at his temple.

I would only be the wielder of this power if I was in control. I could be dominated and destroyed by it, lose myself in the power and be forced from my own body. If that happened my body would become nothing more then the puppet of the power.

I was sort of angry, but it was a cold slow anger. Why didn't the cat say anything about this? Something struck me, what about Mouretsu? He had mentioned that this would happen, and seemed pretty dismal about my odds of survival. I decided that I would have a chat with each of them when this was over. And since I was about to pull out as much power as my body in its unconditioned form can handle, all of those spirit folk will be tripping over themselves to talk to me.

After all, I was the one who'd helped create the wall between the worlds in the Beginning. I had the keys to the back doors now. At least, I was pretty sure I did.

Ten percent maximum capacity; secondary overrides functioning at maximum red-line. All subsystems functioning within acceptable parameters. Warning; maximum safe aggregation reached, further power intake will cause subsystem damage and possible termination of host body.

I raised my sword and nodded, not a second later the ground below me rose up and tried to consume me whole. I shot forwards toward Toph, moving much faster then before. I was right in front of her, the defensive wall that she had put up a second to late at my back, and with all the powers of the void ... beeped her nose again.

"Stop doing that," she shouted, trying to fight off a laugh and punched me full in the gut, bending me over. It didn't really hurt, but damn, why didn't I see that coming?

"Incoming," I said playfully before firing to my right, just dodging a long whip of water that Katara had sent at me. I laughed mischievously as Toph gasped, being thrown back from the force of the water attack. I pivoted sharply on my right foot and tore up the ground between myself and Katara, dodging a few blasts of wind from Aang. I swung to the left and cut wide around Katara, circling her while moving at blinding speeds while she drew a large quantity of water up from the small lake and morphed it into the multiple armed octopus attack she had developed.

Still running in a wide circle as fast as I possible could around my sister I cackled madly as I leaped and dodged countless tentacles of water and the occasional gust of wind. This went on for a further three seconds before I got bored and went in for a more direct attack. Katara was a little surprised to see me coming right at her but still had the composure to launch several more attacks at me.

Using my free hand I tapped each tentacle of water, channeling the cold that was my purview and my divinely granted right. Almost instantly the tentacles froze solid before shattering them into a hundred shards with the side of my blade. I dodged, weaved, froze and shattered my way quickly until I was standing right in front of a fairly stunned Katara. My ears told my the ice shards that I had scattered across the ground were liquefying and coming back together. I felt it all rear up and a lunge at me. Without turning around or even taking my eyes off of Katara I concentrated, calling upon the unmatchable cold of the empty spaces. The transcendent cold of the Void caused Katara to shiver in her 'brother's worst nightmare' outfit, and re-froze and shattered every ounce of water she threw at me. All the while I was grinning like a lunatic right to her face.

This was one of my abilities, _would_ be one of my abilities. I was human, every Incarna before me had been ... something else. This Void power would allow me to call upon it's chill, allow me access to the space between things, allowing me to move in a way that was beyond anything even humanly possible. Movements and acceleration that would paralyze would be taken in an easy stride for me very soon, but right now I had only the smallest control over this ability. If I pushed it too much I might end up getting sucked somewhere extremely unpleasant.

I sidestepped and caught Aang's staff perfectly in my palm, staring right into his eyes. I frowned deeply, I saw something familiar in those eyes, something not of the Aang I knew... something deadly.

_Yasuragi._

I twisted his staff from his grip and threw it as far away as I could. Without a word he attacked, wind and water rushed at me in one powerful wave after another. I stabbed my sword into the earth beneath my feet and held on tight as he poured all of his power into one of his gusts, tearing the very leaves from the trees and making waves crash on the other bank. Something was wrong, he wasn't completely in control of himself anymore, someone else was guiding him; and I think I knew who.

By now Toph had gotten back up and over to me, so now there was the earth to dodge as well and Incarna or no, I was slowly being overwhelmed. Katara got back into the fray, closing in the other side, locking me off from escape as I danced across the tops of the pillars Toph had created to stop my charge and leaped over a wave of water before coming back down in front of Aang only to get caught under the ribs with a block of earth.

I skidded backwards until I managed to kick free from the attack, only to be meet with a barrage of ice javelins. I jumped into the air and twisted in ways that I knew should have paralyzed me at the least and snaked my way through the projectiles and ran along the top of the gauntlet that Toph tried to reestablish, freezing the earth rock solid, then all it took was a hard hit from my blade and it crumbled back to the ground.

I would have laughed at the curse Katara hissed as I weaved my way though a collected attack from her and Toph if not for the fact that Aang's eyes had taken on a very deep shade of tarnished gold; and although I didn't make a habit of looking into his eyes I knew that the Archive was telling me that I was about to meet someone I would rather not.

Aang, or what looked mostly like him took advantage of my distraction and threw a huge _fireball_ right at my face.

Shit, this was_ really_ a bad sign.

I flew backwards as fast as my feet could get me going and was almost out of the range of the ball of very painful looking flames when '_Aang_' followed it up with a freaking huge gust of air.

I got a little bit of an scientific lesson there. Apparently adding a ball of painful flames with one Avatar powered wind blast makes a _fucking huge ball of bleeding death._ Needless to say I was in full retreat chanting_ shit_ over and over again while almost pissing my pants running from this thing. I was so scared I almost didn't notice that I ran across the top of the pond as something snapped inside of me, and suddenly the fireball was ahead of me. I almost cried in relief as it blasted a huge flamey hole in the tree line around the oasis. Poor trees, but at least I'm not all crispy.

Eleven point one percent maximum capacity; secondary overrides within overload threshold. Motor subsystems detecting potential debilitating strain. Estimating remaining activity time. Result; unknown. Human normal physiology beyond scope of existing records.

The human body is an amazing thing.

I laughed a little in relief and a little at the ridiculousness of that notion, but it was true. According to the Archive's report, I was never supposed to be able to access this level of power until I merged with the 'Source System' a.k.a. The White Freaking Wolf. But here I was, at eleven point one percent of my total potential, looking at a little girl in a cute frilly black dress sitting on an oar, floating ten feet off the ground looking at me and in her arms a tiny little squirrel-mouse nuzzled her hand, looking very cuddly. She waved cheerfully and smiled like sunshine and I just waved back like a dumbstruck moron, once again wondering about my sanity.

"Hello again," she said, as sweet as sugar as her huge luminescent eyes sparkled.

"Hello?" I answered, confused.

"Don't turn into a meanie, okay?"

"I won't," I said in the old tongue, not knowing what was going on.

"Good," she said, smiling wider before she floated back into the sky, squirrel-mouse and all.

Okay, what the hell was that about?

Before I came to any conclusion the ghostly apparition of a monkey-sloth swung into my view and howled sadly to the sky, filling my heart with sorrow for the destroyed trees. I wondered briefly what I was looking at until it suddenly struck me that this monkey-sloth was the spirit of the trees in this oasis, and it was grieving over the loss of a part of itself. Without thinking I solemnly bowed my head to it and said, "the circle of life has no beginning or endings, only places where the circle starts anew."

The monkey-sloth seemed to notice me standing there for the first time and regarded me for a long second. I looked straight into his black eyes fearlessly for a long moment before it bowing its head to me and slowly fading back into the trees and the ground beneath the destruction where fallen acorns will one day regrow the dead section of the trees.

I slowly turned around, taking in all of the spirits that faded in and out of my vision, passing before my eyes like a thousand earthbound ghouls. Each of them a part of something and each dependent on something else. As I looked the strangest schematics and ideas fell into my head, things that I could built and ask these spirits to animate. Not to imprison, but to allow them it interact with the physical world, to right the wrongs and make their small parts of the planet a better place. A wind spirit brushed my spread finger tips before passing from my sight. I felt only the beginnings of the possibilities, a drop of the ocean that could be my destiny. All of this was so strange, yet, natural somehow. It finally started to make some sense, not much mind you, but a little.

_'The first of the new race of spirit shapers'._

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The Jade Knight - Richard Caine

Check out the _new_ Forum!

_Please Review_

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	12. Avatar Yasuragi

Disclaimer: We own nothing... cus we're Fing awesome that way.

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Jade Knight's Author's Note:_ alright this is probably the shorter and less intelligent Authors Note on here. Firstly, NO, when I came up with The White Wolf I didn't know anything about the game reference Richard makes. So please don't ask about it. Now... _

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**WE ARE LOOKING FOR ANOTHER BETA READER.** _This is something Richard brought up to me a short time ago. I type too fast, meaning I make a decent number of spelling and grammar mistakes, and since Richard is also a Co-Author and responsible for developing the plot he has very little time and patience to do a thorough beta job. So here's where we get to the main bit. _

_We are looking for a third person to read over the chapters and correct any mistakes that we have missed. We may ask your opinion or feed back on some issues, but you will be mainly operating in an beta function only. Interested? Drop a Review or a PM to either of us and well talk to over between ourselves and pick the best of the best. _

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Richard Caine's Author's Note: It has come to my attention that a great many people reading this story tend to think about science, and scientific ideas, in a very specific way. This colors the way they look at the story we're trying to tell, pparticularly our treatment of how the Incarna works. Many people just don't like it, or feel that it doesn't fit. There is of course no accounting for personal taste. It's just that; personal. But I thought it might be nice to let people know how we look at it. To begin, a question.

One of my best friends, and a guy I'm actually working on a real novel with, once asked me an excellent question.

What is science in a world of magic?

The answer is of course science. It always has been. It's just a science that is alien to this world, a different set of rules upon which the universe rests. However, rules are still rules. Bending applies some pretty straightforward rules, and those martial arts are scientific in their essence. The issue isn't really science or method; it's one of history in a sense. Thing is, we always see fantasy worlds in a feudal state as far as history goes. What does the fantasy world look like in the Renaissance? In the Industrial Age? Today? Tomorrow? After the Apocalypse?

Because that is what the world of Avatar is to us. It is a hollow reflection of past glories faded, where man struggles, even those with superhuman power. I watched this show and I saw things... things I just couldn't explain any other way. And I wanted to show others what I saw, hints of a world that was so much greater than what lives now. A golden age, to the bronze age of the Avatar and the Incarna's absence. Look around. What do you see? I can tell you what I see.

The underground cities? What are they? Why are they freakin' everywhere? What happened to make a genuine city half a mile underneath Ba Sing Se?

Spark rock (the green glowing stuff). What exactly is it? More importantly, what _else_ can it do?

How does Sokka know so much natural science (the Fortuneteller and others), How do they know what hell space is? (Sokka's Master) All this points to knowledge that took millenia for us to discover and prove... with techniques that are still sometimes questioned. Sure it's probably just writer anachronism. But what if it _wasn't?_

The Great Divide? It's a valley in the middle of a geological dead zone. Even the episode comments on it. (the Tour Guide waxes eloquent about Earth Spirits...) But it bears remarkable similarities to something that a guy with Orbital Ion Cannons decided to use as a scratch pad.

The statues we see, old, older than a hundred years. Older than perhaps a thousand; symbols of gods and heroes long past. Think of it. Think of the glory of a world that had the science of bending at the level we have perfected our own crafts. What a wondrous place. Cities miles high, suspended by earth energies and spirits that make the impossible possible. Air ships the size of the USS Iowa, powered by mechanically assisted bending. Floating palace cities of ice, physicians who could cure nearly any disease. Flame based weapons competitive with an Abrams tank. Heck, they've already got that much back. What about firebending weapons that could destroy a city? A continent?

And the Old Ones? Ships that sailed the Void between spaces, not just worlds. The prophetic power to understand the unfurling of destiny; and use it. Understanding the Pattern of the world so clearly that they can put together disparate facts in a way that would baffle the smartest man. A race that could and did stand against the Gods themselves (small spoiler of sorts there...), and beat them enough to gain their eternal respect, if not friendship... Tui and La sure as heck never forgot them.

What you're really seeing here in the description of Sokka's thoughts is how the Old Ones looked at science. Their Incarna creation is not science in any sense you or I think of it. The Incarna is much like the Avatar, a demi-god. What science can create such a thing, contain it? We're talking about rules here that are beyond that of physics, and into the sciences of metaphysics. I'm following in the footsteps of Robert E. Howard (Conan) and Howard Philips Lovecraft (Cthuthu), who asked the same question.

Does our science look like magic to those from the stone age? Yes. We put toast in the toaster and plug it in. Then voila, it's cooked. WTF? Then what would sciences as beyond us as electricity is beyond those of the middle ages appear to be? To most, magic. To people like Sokka, an enigma and a mystery to be solved; a science to be understood.

The Elemental Temples went crazy when Aang first went into the Avatar State. That is canon fact. Was it the harmonious balance of the world beginning to return? Was it the resonance of force unleashed? Was it the computer saying 'Hello Dave?'. Heck if we know. All we see are the pretty lights (Episode 3, first season). However, the Old Ones were above all other things the greatest scientists this universe has ever known. Even their opponents and foes recognized their mastery of physics and metaphysics. The real key is that what Aang would call harmonizing and relegate to a sort of mystical understanding, Sokka will see and search for a system of facts and analytical principals. See here 'The Fortune Teller' and numerous smaller examples. Sokka isn't a man of magic, he's a man of science; perhaps the man of science. That was why the Incarna spirit picked him; because he can save science, something that Aang doesn't care about and the world has nearly forgotten. But not entirely. There are examples if you look deep enough. We point a great many of them out, in fact.

Let us show a world to you that is larger, made larger, by the work of clever artists and writers who left so much unanswered... and that the Knight and I decided were worth answering. We're going to give you a glimpse of a world bigger and more terrible than anyone would want to deal with.

But they will, because that's what people do, and that's what stories do. So settle back and relax the stereotypes a little, because we're going to push them just a little. You might like where it ends up.

Coincidentally, if you do like it, check out Exalted, a game by White Wolf that is as much a helpful inspiration to me as Conan, Hellboy, Escaflowne, and Call of Cthulthu. Mostly because they took from all of that too. And they have a lot more cool professional writers than I do; darn them. (Knight: What about me?)

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_Damn Richard, leave a little paper for the chapter... damn._

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**OH, and remember we will be going up to an 'M' rating soon. We have a specific place that this will take place, (i would say it but it would spoil things) but as it has yet to be written we do not know what chapter it will be in; as soon as we know you will to. **

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_If you do not want to immediately want to run off to the Genzou VS Mouretsu: who is the deceiver? section of the forum... go back to the chapter and read it more slowly._

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_And Lastly, give Richard some props... its only because of him that I'm uploading now. I was perfectly fine with letting you sweat it out for another week... but he said it would be cruel. (inside laught)_

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**YOU ARE NOW READING THE LONGEST TOKKA STORY (WITH MAIKO SPRINKLES) ON THIS SITE! ONE HUNDRED THOUDAND WORDS! WHOOT!**

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_-Curtain Up!_

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**Sokka: Master of the Black Sword**

By: The Jade Knight & Richard Caine

Creative Consultant & Beta: Richard Caine & The Jade Knight

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**-The Resistance Saga-**

**Chapter 12**

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The Story of Sokka

Part 8: Avatar Yasuragi

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_But here I was, at eleven point one percent of my total potential, looking at a little girl in a cute frilly black dress sitting on an oar, floating ten feet off the ground looking at me and in her arms a tiny little squirrel-mouse nuzzled her hand, looking very cuddly. She waved cheerfully and smiled like sunshine and I just waved back like a dumbstruck moron, once again wondering about my sanity._

_"Hello again," she said, as sweet as sugar as her huge luminescent eyes sparkled. _

_"Hello?" I answered, confused._

_"Don't turn into a meanie, okay?" _

_"I won't," I said in the old tongue, not knowing what was going on._

_"Good," she said, smiling wider before she floated back into the sky, squirrel-mouse and all._

_Okay, what the hell was that about?_

_Before I came to any conclusion the ghostly apparition of a monkey-sloth swung into my view and howled sadly to the sky, filling my heart with sorrow for the destroyed trees. I wondered briefly what I was looking at until it suddenly struck me that this monkey-sloth was the spirit of the trees in this oasis, and it was grieving over the loss of a part of itself. Without thinking I solemnly bowed my head to it and said, "the circle of life has no beginning or endings, only places where the circle starts anew."_

_The monkey-sloth seemed to notice me standing there for the first time and regarded me for a long second. I looked straight into his black eyes fearlessly for a long moment before it bowing its head to me and slowly fading back into the trees and the ground beneath the destruction where fallen acorns will one day regrow the dead section of the trees. _

_I slowly turned around, taking in all of the spirits that faded in and out of my vision, passing before my eyes like a thousand earthbound ghouls. Each of them a part of something and each dependent on something else. As I looked the strangest schematics and ideas fell into my head, things that I could built and ask these spirits to animate. Not to imprison, but to allow them it interact with the physical world, to right the wrongs and make their small parts of the planet a better place. A wind spirit brushed my spread finger tips before passing from my sight. I felt only the beginnings of the possibilities, a drop of the ocean that could be my destiny. All of this was so strange, yet, natural somehow. It finally started to make some sense, not much mind you, but a little. _

_'The first of the new race of spirit shapers'._

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I had turned completely around, facing back the way I came, and saw my family almost frozen, moving so slowly. I knew what this was now, I had stepped partially into the spirit world, and in the spirit world time moved differently, sometimes not at all, and sometimes backwards. It was a useful technique to reevaluate a situation, but I could not make any other movements aside from observing my surroundings; it was not a combat technique unfortunately.

Across the pond Katara was facing me, screaming something while a wave of the pond slowly rolled toward me, no doubt an effort to extinguish the fireball that had been after me like black on burnt toast. Toph was behind her, still in the process of getting back up. It looked like that last blast of air had knocked her back. And Aang...

Aang was consumed in a spiral tornado of flames. I now understood what meat must think when it sees me staring down at it.

I had seen this phenomenon a few times before, each time he had been consumed in an element before, it had always been coupled with one of his past lives coming to the surface. Yes, this was really freaking bad.

I looked straight up into the wide blue sky, dotted with a few fluffy clouds and listened to the Whispers of the Archive. Something up there, some sort of apparatus was trying to contact me, to become active. I think it was a sort of warning system, at least that was what one of its functions was. Kind of like how all of those Temples lit up the first time Aang hit his Avatar state announcing to the world that he was active. I brushed away the whispers and -I have no idea how- I told the things in the sky to go back to sleep, that I didn't have the source yet.

That aside another something tried to reach out to me, something from far in the desert. I looked to the east, through a part in the trees to a specific dune. It called itself the 'Divishna D'strella' and it said that it awaited my commands. I frowned as another stream of information from the Archive told me that the 'Devourer of Stars' had been missing since the last great war. Strange. I shrugged it off and told this new thing the same; that I was not ready yet and to go back to sleep. Apparently it obeyed me because it went quiet.

I would deal with Aang, or whoever the hell he would be in a minute, right that second I wanted a few explanations on what was going on.

I closed my eyes and looked within myself, reaching for that cold flame. I approached slowly, ready to back out right away should the power start to fade, but it held steady. Finally, my consciousness crossed the Void and was pulled towards something very, very fast. Towards something... something inevitable. Hitzuzen. My spirit followed the invisible trail of fate.

Now I was far away from here, looking down at a small fleet of airships over the ocean? I wanted answers to all of the crap that just happened, not more questions. I focused a little harder on the airship below me. It was something I had never seen before, a model of Fire-Nation airship. It was as if they had found the wreckage of the Inventor's design, and put a horribly destructive spin on it, turning it into an armor plated behemoth. I knew there were other ships in the formation, but they were unimportant to the march of inevitable fate. So I turned my attention to the lead airship, unable to look anywhere else ... a thousand thousand gossamer strands of fate wove about this one.

I focused harder on the ship with my will and started to see smaller things such as faces of crew and the compliment of weapons. Meaningless face followed meaningless face, each flinching slightly as I passed them. I guess they felt me looking at them, or something like it.

There!

Faces that meant something. That really bendy girl obsessed with pink and my oh so manly body, Azula's lacky and one of the three bitch-ka-teers. Then that thin athletic girl that always traveled with Azula, the one that threw the knives. She was walking down a hallway, when she froze, falling down on one knee as if she could feel my presence more keenly than the others could. A faint outline of dark skin and black exoskeleton shimmered in the darkened hallway.

Holy crap! _She was like Senchi_! As my gazed rolled over her bowed head and I could see her real face beneath the seeming she threw up to deceive others. She was one of those ... a word came to me; Gel-Hassad. Yes, that was it. She was one of the Gel-Hassad. Her hands flashed in a pattern, a Shaping of some kind. She was able to stand again, and her golden eyes locked with my own.

I looked closer at her awestruck features and somehow her face looked familiar, like I had seen it a thousand times before. A flash of memory, truly ancient memory, struck me. The Gel-Hassad fought behind me on Yegoth all those years ago. I remembered watching the first embryos floating in the hatcheries, I remembered the sadness in my heart when we lost one, and I remembered the first on to open her eyes and look at me.

Knife girl looked _exactly_ like Vala, the Firstborn of the New Race. The race that would ensure the legacy and will of the Old Ones. I ... one of my past lives had seen a darkness on the horizon, and the new race, the Gel-Hassad was my answer to that.

More meaningless faces passed me as I was consumed by ancient memories of watching my daughter through the eyes of one of my predecessors. Watching little Vala take her first steps, learning her first words, meeting her siblings for the first time. That incarnation of myself could never have children and, although I had never planned on it, that first child of the Gel-Hassad and every one that followed had felt like my own. Then she faded from sight as my focus swept on as did my memories.

I snapped out of my reminiscing when the ugly mug of Combustion Man rolled past. I growled slightly, what the hell was with this guy? Didn't we kick his ass enough times to teach him a lesson? He was gone and replaced with two Gel-Hassad faces at once. That was weird, up until now it had always been one face at a time. Something twinged in the back of my mind and I got the impression that these two women shared a combined soul? I didn't really get it, but what the hell made sense anymore?

Azula sneered at me as I passed by, the killer intent coming off of her was amazing. However I don't think she truly felt me, not like Knife Girl had. That was a relief that I could hardly put into words. I pulled back a little until I was looking down on the airship again. Where was this happy little group going?

Of course! What the hell was I thinking, this was Azula's battle group that was going to destroy the resistance movement in Ba Sing Se. My eyes went wide in horror. Wait, the first time that that furry little monster had met me in the Spirit World she had shown me myself attacking the fortress of Ba Sing Se, this must be what it was warning me about. These airships, the three psychos, Combustion Man, they were all going to Ba Sing Se and ...

And what? Do I tell the others nothing and make us all run for the hills? Do I tell them? Do we go to Ba Sing Se and risk making that nightmare a reality? I'm supposed to be a smart man, _what the fucking hell was I supposed to do!_

Four days and Azula's forces would be at the walls of the great city. What do I do? I gently slid back into reality just as the time slowed flames around Aang reach their crescendo. How could I protect them? I looked over at Toph, almost back on her feet looking over in my direction, worried ... worried about me.

I couldn't hide this from them.

They were all I had left, my family in every way that mattered and I know I would be pissed off if they kept something like this to themselves. I would want them to share the problems, to let me help them, to know that they could trust me. I would not be a very good person if I didn't do the same for them. I would get back to the physical world and after talking about old times with my mortal enemy I would tell them everything, and we would all decide how best to proceed.

It was that easy. I decided that I wanted to return and suddenly time returned to normal again. The wave, damn, the _near-tidal_ wave that Katara had created to put out the fire ball slammed into me. I held my ground and rocked back on my heels, letting the pressure slowly dissipate.

Two voices screamed my name over the howl of flames. I waved away the girls' concerns seeing as how I still couldn't speak anything they could understand. Ha, I knew I saw some weird-ass things hovering over them.

The Archive kicked back in and the information started to flow freely again. At any one time there were dozens of people in the world that held a spark of the elements in them, the potential to become talented and powerful enough to assist the Avatar rise back to his full potential every time he is reborn. These sparks can take the form of thousands of different things, depending on the host's personality, and it seemed that two recognized Henkotsu-sensei', Toph and Katara, were no exception.

Toph stood stark still, a sign that she was watching the world around her very intently. She looked very beautiful that way, her face slightly scrunched in concentration as the wind currents given off of Aang blowing her hair across her misty eyes. I had been using what the Archive called the 'Void Sight' for a while now, and I used it to look a little deeper. Something was nagging at me, there was something about Toph that was just outside my sight. I squinted slightly, focusing on her a little harder ... and there it was, dormant Gel-Hassad blood. Someone in her family -going back two or three generations from the looks of it- was a Gel-Hassad. I wonder if she knew?

I laughed, maybe this is why she seemed much stronger and tougher then her small form led most to believe? The traits were buried pretty deep, but not so deep to have a small amount of influence on her physiology. I think I might have just discovered the secret to the enigma that was Toph.

And the enigma only deepened with the Beast hanging over her, and I meant beast in the most literal sense of the word. Towering over her, nearly thirty feet into the sky was a great furry Goliath. It actually looked like an enormous slightly-humanoid Badger-Mole. Its arms were cabled with tons of sinewy muscle and its entire body was covered in shiny brown fur. It looked down on me with the same unjudging misty green eyes of Toph's that I always got lost in and I felt no malice from it. It was not a monster in any sense of the word, it was the spark of the Earth, the source from which Toph drew her astounding Earth bending talents.

I looked up at it and met its blind eyes. A deep rumble emanated from inside its gargantuan chest that almost shook the ground. I smile and bowed my head as a sign of peace and -I hope- mutual respect. It stood on powerful legs directly over Toph and rested its clawed hands on either side of all five foot height of its host watching both me and the flaming Aang, ready to lend its host all of its power should the need arise. After a moment it lowered itself onto on knee and bowed deeply to me.

O-kay? Well, at least its not attacking me.

I turned down the strength of my void sight a little. My calculations said that I had a further five seconds before Aang was through doing whatever the hell he was doing, and if I got caught with my void sight on too high when he want all 'human-god' it would be like looking directly into a smithing furnace when someone threw a bucket of gunpowder into it. Not pretty.

Katara was frantically tracking back and forth between me and Aang. Poor Katara, I didn't mean to make her so worried. Toph was the only one here who kind of knew what was going on. Katara was totally out of the loop, and if I was right it was about to get a lot worse.

My eyes tracked skyward and checked out Katara's spark of the ocean. Damn, I knew it was a bad idea to get on her bad sides, but _damn_.

Like Toph's it was tall, but not quite as gargantuan, only few hands taller then Katara herself. It was a deathly pale blue and obviously female. It's eyes were a bloody crimson and so deep they were maddening, its thin wispy gown flowed around its body like it was floating underwater. Its mouth open slowly in a spine tingling rolling click, sort of like an echolocation pulse, only a lot more freaky. It caught my eyes and glided forward slightly a few inches above the ground, regarding me with a lethal eye, estimating my threat level. Its hair flowed around its head like a Medusa's, eager to strangle the life from an enemy.

Again I locked eyes with this new spark and bowed my head respectfully; the spirits were very old school with the respects and stuff. At least thats what the Archive told me, and since I have very little experience in creepy-ass occurrences, I'm giving this Archive thing the benefit of the doubt. Again, the spark stared hard at me for a long moment, considering before it dropped to one knee in a bow that was a lot more then a little respect. Its like something I'd expect Aang to get.

And speaking of Aang, the fire was cooling off to a icy blue and lowering down to about knee level. I heard Katara call his name from where she stood, frozen in confusion, but Aang was out of his mind right now, she should try back in a few minutes.

Well, this sure brought back memories. Though, technically they weren't my memories, they were still so powerful I could almost feel the sands beneath my feet, or the setting sun on my face just like they had that fateful day forty thousand years ago. I tried several times to sheath my sword and to not look threatening, after all Aang was my best friend, I didn't want to hurt him. But the Archive wouldn't let me, the reasons behind it were unclear, but the message wasn't.

_She's here to kill you._

I looked harder at the person that was once my best friend and I saw through the secret of the Avatar. Like when I fought Senchi, it was as though I was seeing an image draped over the real person, and that made this fight impossible for me to win.

The rage filled tarnished gold eyes of Avatar Yasuragi met mine and bored in. Her deep red hair, unlike anything I'd ever seen before, floated around her head with the raging windstorm that her power was kicking up. She gritted her teeth and the few age lines that were on her middle aged face pulled tight, giving her an even more dangerous aura. She stood there, proud and arrogant, glaring at me with a hate built up over thousands of years. A stiff wind filled with fine sand rattled slightly against her crimson armor. She had no weapons on her finely crafted belt, after all she was the freaking Avatar, a fully realized Avatar with all of her power and potential at her disposal. I was screwed; utterly, completely, and possibly absolutely.

Beneath the image that was Avatar Yasuragi the shorter body of Aang stood, eyes glowing. This was one of the secrets of the Avatar, they didn't really manifest their previous incarnations into the physical world, they used their great power to throw up a seeming, much like the Gel-Hassad. This made it all the worse, I could not attack Our mortal nemesis for fear of hurting Aang, but unfortunately for me Yasuragi had no such restrictions.

"Incarna Sokka, after reviewing the memories of this host I have regretfully come to the conclusion that you are too power hungry, an illness that will only lead to tyranny," Yasuragi said in a voice terrifyingly devoid of humanity. Behind her Katara's face went from confusion, to horror, to dark rage, a moment later a blackness entered the skin of her spark as it howled along with the turmoil in her heart.

"Don't do this," I said evenly in the language of the old, knowing that Yasuragi understood every word.

But she ignored me, her face just as emotionless as it was moments before. "By my authority as past Avatar of this land I hereby declare that for the greater good you will be executed on this day; prepare yourself Sir Incarna."

"You don't have to do this," I repeated. My grip on my blade tightened as the cold flame in my chest grew. The last time we had clashed at full power it was total devastation. Now, we weren't any where near the levels we were back then, after all the bitch was _dead_ for crying out loud, but we still posed a great danger to the surrounding people and property.

"Katara, Toph," I called, hoping they could understand me, if only in my tone. "Run, run as fast as you can."

I walked out onto the small lake, my aura freezing the entire thing down to its core. Thousands of gallons of water, flash frozen in a fraction of a second. I took another step out onto the icy surface just as a chilling fog began to roll off of the dead lake, kicking up around my heels like the hounds of hell.

"Henkotsu, I order you to execute that man," Yasuragi said, pointing to me as I slowly closed the distance between us one step at a time.

"Run, please just get as far away from this psycho as you can," I pleaded. Then I turned to look at Katara, trying to tell her with my eyes what my words could not, and she used that, she used my feelings for my sister and Toph against me. My eyes caught a huge movement from in front of me and I snapped my attention back to my executioner, but too late. The entire lake, save for the small island that I stood on liquefied and rose up around me, forming a dome. It held there for a second, only a second, just long enough for me to hear Katara scream my name, for me to hear Toph attack Yasuragi. The inside of the dome came at me with impossible speed, condensing down as it descended so that I had no way out as countless wickedly sharp frozen spikes formed.

This was it.

This was how I died.

I closed my eyes, what could I do? She was the fucking psycho Avatar from millenia ago that had taken over my best friends ... no, my brothers body and was using it to kill me with. What could I possibly do? She had been slaughtering my kin, my fellow Incarnae for hundreds of generations. One hundred and thirty one before me had gained the power of the Incarna, and one hundred and thirty one times Yasuragi took control of the existing Avatar's body and killed. The bitch had a depressingly high success rate. I didn't have the power or the will to kill my brother just to stop her. I had no escape. Time slowed once more as the Void refused to accept what my mind had, and pushed me slightly into the Spirit World again.

The Archive was still sending me memories and plots, but none of it was useful. I wasn't smart enough, I wasn't powerful enough once again. I was going to die here, at the hands of Yasuragi and there was nothing I could do about it. From a distance I heard Toph's cry of pain as something struck her.

Rage boiled up from inside me and the cold flame in my chest became an inferno. Kill me if you must, but lay a finger on any of them and I will bring the sky crashing down around your face.

Eleven point nine percent maximum capacity. Secondary overrides degrading rapidly. Estimated possibility of survival decreasing. Warning; high likelihood bio-form will collapse under strain of additional power influx.

The body can only contain so much of the Void before it tears itself apart in a gory explosion. Or implodes, or both; the Void seems to be an equal opportunity destructive force. My arms shook at my sides as the muscles felt like they were being torn to shreds. The Gel-Hassad body is a decent bit more durable and flexible then the human body, they could handle a little more power in the unconditioned state then us.

Twelve point six percent. Secondary override channels burnt out; switching back to primary channels; reconfiguring power distribution.

I am the first human in the memory of the Archive to become the scion of the Incarna, so all of the power expectations and abilities were all just guidelines. They had never seen a human with the fear of oblivion and total loss in him wielding the Void. My entire body ached and my joints groaned like the thawing ice as more power flowed into me.

Twelve point nine percent. Estimated survival decreased by forty four percent. Warning, severe tissue damage imminent. I ignored the scrolling status updates at the corner of my vision.

I was not the Incarna yet, I would only be considered that when I ... merged with that White Wolf. Until then I had only a shaky grasp on my abilities, not unlike what a regular Gel-Hassad Spirit Shaper had.

I almost fell to one knee as I vomited a mouthful of blood onto the ice beneath my feet. The was so much power it was doing me great harm to hold onto it, but I needed it all if I was going to stop Yasuragi without hurting Aang.

It is a well documented and completely undisputed fact that a Gel-Hassad scion body, unconditioned and without the Spirit of the Incarna could only contain twelve percent of the Incarna's full potential before the body is destroyed by the forces it contains.

The human body is expected to only hold nine percent before total destruction. Turns out we're tougher than their calculations thought. Not that much tougher though.

I was just barely able to wrestle my screaming muscles into an upright position when I hit thirteen percent, my entire body vibrating with the power I now held. I quickly ran thousands of calculations and came to the only course of action that I could take, the only thing that would allow me to bring Yasuragi down without hurting Aang.

I focused a large amount of my power into my blade, charging it with pure Void energy until it seemed to suck in the very light and sky around it, like a whirlpool of hungry blackness. A howling wind raised around the edge of the sword as air was sucked into the great emptiness between spaces. I raised it just as I let go of the Spirit World, allowing time to flow quickly around me again. The glittering spikes of superdense ice once more continued their descent, but I was ready.

I bolted straight ahead, the dry river bed beneath my feet almost shaking with my steps. And then it was like a bomb going off in my face when I struck the wall, shards of ice exploding outward in a blinding hail. I heard Katara gasp in surprise and shield her eyes from the force of the explosion. She was fine, I had triangulated both hers and Toph's position from inside the dome before I had even moved.

I glared straight ahead of my, my eyes in agony from the amount of energy building up behind them. I could see clearer then I had ever before, it was as though I could peek into the souls of people and see their desires and fears. So when Yasuragi turned to me and we locked eyes I knew that she was planning on killing me by any means necessary. Toph, Katara, they were all expendable in her opinion.

"_They are not expendable_!" I bellowed, my aura of power exploding outward, stripping the leaves off of the trees. My voice wrapped around itself a chorusing harmony of a thousand voices that spoke a tongue no human could; a denial of everything the Avatar was trying to do to Us. I raged at the spiteful and hate filled person that had once been arguably the greatest Avatar.

"Against the threat you pose to the entire world, everyone is expendable; even me," said Yasuragi stepping away from where she had been staring down a furious Toph. She turned to look at me, her red hair lifting towards the singularity that my blade had become, pulled by the wind that rushed towards it. Meanwhile, my little warrior Toph looked about ready to lay the smack down on the Avatar. Good, the bitch needed it. I knew there was no arguing with this woman.

"Sokka, Aang, what are you two doing?" yelled Katara, looking somewhere between worried and pissed off.

"This man has to die. I may require your help Henkotsu, please prepare yourself."

"Who the hell do you think you are?" fumed Katara. "He's my brother, I'm not going to kill him or let you kill him."

My computation ramped up again. I winced slightly as I felt hundreds of Gel-Hassad using the Archive to try to figure out where all of the damn processing power was going. They felt me becoming a huge draw upon its resources, equal to the complicated working of a score of master shapers working as one. The Archive was immense beyond human reckoning, with processing power that grew greater every day, with every memory; there was no possibility that I could use it all. However, as unspeakably inefficient as I was being with the processing power, they were wondering where all of the data was coming from, and more importantly, where it was going. But all this attention was a distraction, and I needed focus.

I gathered up all of the Whispers that I could and delivered a message before I gently pushed them all away, although it was still probably a little strong. "_I'm busy trying not to be killed by the Avatar, please try back later._" I would have laughed thinking about their reactions to that if not for the psycho in front of me prepared to sacrifice my family in the pursuit of killing me.

I could feel my body about to give, I had ninety four seconds to end this before I was overwhelmed by the power of the Void. Well, let's bring the house down.

My feet barely touching the ground, I rocketed forward, the hungry Void-touched blade held high. Yasuragi had only enough time for her mouth to pull back into a twisted smile before we clashed. The grace and ease I moved with made my other moments today look like the bumblings of a five hundred pound man. I dodged jets of red flames and struck with the Black Sword, slitting the illusion's amour with every strike, but always careful to stay just a breath above Aang's skin.

The ground joined in on the fight a moment later, forming a huge towering wall between us, but I simply imploded a section of the wall, sending it hurtling into the Void with a power equal to when I broke out of the dome. Now a slight flicker of worry flitted behind Yasuragi's eyes as one wall after another fell through the doorway to the empty depths that my blade had become. She, like most benders fought best at a bit of a distance while us Spirit Shapers, save for a few weapon disciplines liked to be face to face with our enemies, using our superior flexibility and endurance. Gross generality, sure, but I've always been a sucker for stereotypes.

She was holding back some power while trying to get a little distance between us, obviously she didn't have access to all of Aang's memories or she would know I had just defeated Toph with the same maneuvers. He must have been fighting her.

Flame and rock attacked me from all sides. The flames were either a scorching scarlet or a frightening blue, but all of them blackened the rocks and glassed the sands as I danced through them like a flower petal in the wind. She should have stopped trying to use the earth to keep distance from me, knowing it was futile, but she continued to use it. One moment the earth would split, revealing a maw of spikes beneath me; and when I gracefully flew over the pit the spikes would leap up at me, but I had already calculated all of the angles and it was nothing to sidestep or block them, even in midair.

She was getting frustrated, and I was still like a shark in bloodied waters. No one, and I mean _no one_ threatens the ones precious to me. Not even the Avatar.

Yasuragi screamed in rage, calling the winds up behind her in an attempt to blow me backwards into the death spikes she had arranged a moment ago. A hurricane bored down on me, but I just dug my blade in and gritted my teeth at her in defiance. A second later I felt the air currents change and knew that she was pulling the wall of death forward, trying to swipe at me from behind.

I leaped into the air at the last second, back flipping over the sliding death and was able to easily wiggle through the jets of fire that followed. I landed hard on the sandy earth and immediately snaked my way through the arms of water that tried to grab me, possibly to hold me still long enough to kill me.

"Why won't you die!" Yasuragi shrieked, her body a blur of motion as she commanded the elements.

"Don't hurt Sokka!" cried Toph as she got into the fight and attacked, sending a very impressive array of smashing and pummeling attacks at Yasuragi. Sharpened columns rose from under the earth and tried to skewer the psycho who moved with practiced ease around them, smashing some back into the earth and turning others back on Toph. My power flared at that, causing more pain and shaving another second off of my safe zone. I broke off my offensive to dart over and help Toph shatter all of the spikes coming at her.

I stood beside Toph, breathing heavily as blood oozed from my mouth, barely able to keep my grip on my blade.

Thirty six seconds.

Toph made to attack again, her left arm coming up in a motion that would harden the sand under Yasuragi into a forest of ten foot spikes. But I caught her arm in my hand and stopped it. She seemed confused and tilted her head to me in question right before I pulled her back at breakneck speeds to avoid the dozen or so razor sharp discs that Katara had sent Yasuragi's way a moment ago as they were rerouted our way by the once great Avatar.

"Stop!" I shouted over the sound of burning trees, falling earth and crashing water with both of my arms up, hoping that Toph and my sister got my meaning. It appeared they did, even Yasuragi stopped for a moment, trying to figure out how this ploy was to benefit me.

"I'll take him alone, it's still Aang under there and only I can get rid of Yasuragi without hurting him," I said clearly, hoping that something got through to them.

Yasuragi laughed hard, her voice filling the space.

"What did he say?" Katara asked completely lost, but not taking her eyes off of Yasuragi.

"He said something about us going away and him getting himself killed," said Toph like it was obvious. I couldn't help but cock an eyebrow at her. I knew she couldn't see it, but really, what the hell?

"How do you know that?" asked Katara sounding amazed, chancing a glance over to us.

"Well, I can't figure out what the hell he's talking about. But really Katara, it's Sokka. He's bound to be talking about doing something heroic and suicidal while we're supposed to run," she said. Then turning to me, "right?"

I could only nod, while Yasuragi laughed harder.

"Well, well," she said, still chuckling. "It seems you're more clever then I thought. Not only have you managed to negotiate your way into a perfect opportunity to kill my current incarnation, but you have somehow managed to brainwash two of my Henkotsu enough that they believe every word that comes from your deceiving mouth. Damn, boy. I wouldn't doubt it if they were prepared to die to protect you."

"Damn fuckin' rights I would," screamed Katara and Toph almost simultaneously, although the curse was from Toph alone.

"He's my brother, he is not a power hungry tyrant," hissed Katara. The water at her feet rippled dangerously with her every word and her spark looked absolutely lethal.

"Oh, really?" said Yasuragi slowly, drawing out every word. "Tell us Incarna, do you crave power at any cost? Do you live every day to only get stronger? You may have these two Henkotsu tricked, and judging from the memories of this host you fooled him as well. But can you deny it, do you not crave power like air, would you give your own life in the pursuit of this power? Now that you have it in your grasp, now that you are at the level of a minor demi-god would you give it back?"

I stared hard at Yasuragi, feeling my hate for her burn inside my chest. Yes, I craved power, yes everything she had just said was true. But she was taking it completely out of context. She made it sound like I wanted to rule the world over the edge of a sword. I could deny nothing she had just accused me of, because it was all true, just for different reasons then what she was implying. She was trying to use my inability to speak as a weapon to turn my family against me.

I looked at Katara and saw hate for Yasuragi, protective feeling for everyone in this clearing, but what killed me was the doubt I saw when I could not deny Yasuragi's cleverly crafted words.

"You don't understand anything and don't think you can manipulate us, right Katara," yelled Toph with total confidence.

Katara, turned her head slightly toward me, her guard against Yasuragi lowering slightly. But then she looked into my eyes, and I tried to tell her, to plead with her wordlessly that I was not the tyrant Yasuragi made me out to be. A flash of guilt was followed immediately by all doubt vanishing. "That's right!"

Instead of a reply Yasuragi just laughed harder, the sound bouncing around the ravaged oasis. "My, Sir Incarna you are much smarter then all of the others before you that I was forced to kill. You really have these two completely loyal to you, don't you?" Then for the first time I saw something like regret creep onto her face. _No_, she wouldn't. "In light of this new evidence I am saddened to say that I cannot allow two carriers of the spark to remain loyal to a tyrant. It pains me, but the two Henkotsu before you must decide to either break their bonds with you, or join you in death."

"What?" shrieked Katara. Toph just sneered dangerously and squared off against Yasuragi ... and I tore a deep trench into the ground as I ate up the distance between myself and the dead woman.

No one fucks with my family.

Eighty nine seconds, I could only hold this power for a further five seconds before it killed me.

I kicked up so much sand that when I slammed into Yasuragi going full speed, screaming like a demonic choir that the cloud of it was nearly a kilometer high. Fire and water were all over, steam exploded past me, burning my cheek, the smell of cooked flesh filling my nose. I pushed harder. I was a tornado of speed, my blade everywhere at once, hacking the tips off of stone spikes or freezing a wave of water into a crystal, only to smash it a second later as I blasted through it. My sword inhaled entire firestorms, trying to get to the manic that threatened my family.

Yasuragi fought back as hard as she could, but no matter the seeming she threw up she was still a fully grown woman trying to use the body of a small man who was just learning to control his power. In a straight fight the Avatar would out power the Incarna every time, our strength was in the planning and calculations. I weaved my way through a gauntlet of flame and water that tried to reach out and strangle me, my spine separating at every connection to allow me the mobility to dodge.

I was closing in, my body in excruciating pain as the Void ate at my muscles, tearing me apart one molecule at a time. We slammed together again, fire everywhere. Another explosion shocked the earth sending an acidic black cloud into the sky as we grappled, my black sword lay on the ground, all of the power I had placed in it had been expended explosively in that last clash.

Our faces were inches apart, I roared as loud as I could while my hands clamped down on her wrists. For a moment she just leveled her glare at me and I could feel the entire lake rise up behind me, until her face fell when she realized that I only had a hold on_ her_ wrists, not Aang's.

"Spirit Shaper, bitch," I growled. Then I wrenched back with all of my might, while pouring as much of the Void as I could into my hands. I don't know how I was reaching across the dimension and grabbing only Yasuragi's spirit and not Aang. But I didn't care, she was where I wanted her, and she was about to find out what happens to people that threaten those important to me. The howling Void drained at her spirit, wrenching her connection to Aang brutally apart, spiritual strand by strand.

I had her arms completely away from Aang, and the rest of her was coming when she made a last ditch effort and put everything into pulling back against me. I was tired, and dying from trying to contain too much Void energy, and so I lost my grip on one of her hands. The next thing I knew I felt a single spike of earth coming at my back, aimed right for my heart. I had to pull back, the damage had already been done so there was no point to risk serious injury, I had forcibly pulled the maniac Avatar's spirit from the body. She would be a danger for another three seconds, and then she would be completely powerless until she vanished back to the Spirit Word to recover.

I easily sidestepped the weak and pathetic spike of earth and was about to let go of the Void power when Yasuragi spun a thin rope of flames from her hands, twisting it into a writhing ball of white hot fire. My mind and the Void both calculated how she would attack, as well as three other possible outcomes, so I wasn't worried.

The ball of flame burned hot, hotter then I though possible as it struggled to break free of her grasp. Shit, if that stuck I would be reduced to a pile of ashes. I backed up quickly, snatching up my black blade and prepared to dodge her last attack. It came, I dodged and calculated that it would pass harmlessly over the tree tops before detonating a mile away, harming no one. But in her last moment of power Yasuragi sent a final blast of wind, barely a breeze really, toward her creation tilting it slightly to the left. It singed my clothes as it passed but I still easily avoided it. The thing was, I moved so fast I hadn't even finished re-calculating the trajectory.

I was suddenly moving as fast as inhumanly possible, racing a fireball. That last hit had put it on a collision course with both Toph and Katara, and if I didn't get to them in time ..._ no_, I _will_ get there in time.

If asked later I would have no idea how I had outrun a raging fireball that burned hotter then anything else I had ever felt, but I did it.

Immediately I grabbed both Katara and Toph by their arms and whipped them around, firing them off into the desert using my tremendous momentum to send them as far away form ground zero as I could. I watched them just long enough to see Toph pull up a dune of soft sand to cushion their falls before I went to make my own escape.

Again time seemed to slow, but it wasn't my doing this time. This time it was the illusion of a person face with their own death. I turned back to the enormous ball of white fire racing toward me and I knew I could not outrun it, it was barely ten feet away from me and closing in fast. I regretted nothing, I had saved them, I had saved them both. I started to run, knowing it was futile but trying anyway. The soft sands crunched and slid beneath my feet, making me lose my footing. I closed my eyes when the heat became too much for me. I didn't want to face death, I know it was cowardly but I couldn't look at my maker.

**Step **_**Between**_**.**

My eyes snapped open. A voice? It was a voice I had never heard before. It was powerful, much larger then anything human, but also somehow familiar, and it had come from _inside_ me. Next I felt the flame of cold power inside me start to fade... no, not fade. They were draining somewhere, powering something. The strangest sensation over came me just then. It was like nothing I had ever felt before ... something my mind couldn't even begin to name or categorize.

And then came the pain.

Crushing force. I tried to scream out but I couldn't move or even speak. Impossible force pushed down on me from all sides, forcing the air from my lungs and making every bone feel like it was breaking. It felt like I was being jammed through the dimensions, pressed into another part of the world with the force of a thousand men. And for a moment, only a moment ... there was silence. Total silence. Nothing. I tried to open my eyes, but there was nothing and everything. It was like I was looking at the entire world and nothing all at once. It was maddening. I tried to scream or move or anything, but I was trapped. There was no air here, no space or sense of gravity; but at the same time everything existed here. I could see everything, my home in the south pole, an old man fishing on a small stream, the palace of Ba Sing Se, a small girl's birthday party, the airships I had been watching. _Everything, _was here, but not here at the same time.

I just wanted to make sure Toph, Katara and Aang were all okay.

I cried out as everything came back into existence. Light, sound, heat, the sun was burning my eye. I twisted away from the light and looked ... down?

What the hell was going on? I was nearly two hundred feet in the air, and falling fast. The wind screamed in my ears as my aching muscles tried to grab onto something, anything to stop my fall, but there was nothing to grab onto two hundred feet in the air. A flash blinded me once again as I screamed out and threw my hands up in front of my face, and then the impact of a deafening explosion hit me hard, almost knocking me the rest of the way unconscious. I fell for what seemed like forever; blind, deaf and confused before I heard voices.

"Toph, soft sand now! Sokka's falling!"

"Sokka, I got you." Toph? It was Toph. A fraction of a second later I met a column of soft sand that was reaching up for me. It was soft, well, softish. But it felt great to know where the ground was for once.

I must have passed out for a moment there, because the next thing I knew I was being... poked? I opened my eyes and Toph was kneeling right beside me, poking me in the cheek.

"Sokka wake up, Katara's broken or something."

I squinted at the sunlight, trying to get my vision to focus, and then I saw what had been so bright. A deathly black mushroom cloud rolled over itself lazily nearly three kilometers into the sky. I didn't know any words that could possibly describe what I was feeling, so I just stared open mouthed up at the remains of my fight.

"Great, are you going to answer me either?" asked Toph from beside me.

Remembering -for once- that she was blind I tried to put into words what I was seeing. "Do you feel those waves of heat washing over us?"

"Hey, you can talk again!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, the power's gone. But I'm going to have trouble moving and walking and such for a day or so."

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good. Well, better than Yasuragi anyway."

"So... what's with Katara?" I looked over to where Katara was also gaping at the black cloud. "She said you were falling, then something about it drying out her hair and then I couldn't get anything from her."

"A smoke cloud from that last explosion is rising up into the sky, its so tall it can probably be seen for a good hundred kilometers."

"Wow," she said, turning her face into the heat. "That was one hell of a fight, hey Snoozles?"

"Yep, and it ain't over yet," I stated simply.

"What?"

"Yasuragi's still got enough power to say in possession of Aang's body for a few more minutes," I said, unsure of the exact time as the awesome mathematical powers of the Archive had left me.

"She's mine," Toph growled before stomping off in the direction of the cloud.

"No, Toph wait," I called through a bloody smile. Little Warrior Toph off to do battle. "I got her, she has no power left. She can only bad mouth us for a little while longer then she's back to wherever she crawled out from."

"You sure?"

"Positive," I said from my place on the sand. I tried to get up, but was rewarded with electrical pain shooting up my back and across my aching chest. I gasped out in pain and immediately left myself fall back onto the sand. When the pain had passed and I reopened my eyes Toph was bending over me again.

"Are you going to be okay? And no macho stuff; the truth," said Toph, crouching back down beside me. I laid back down flat for a moment taking a tally of my injuries.

All of my muscles were strained, not ripped or anything so I should be pretty good after a nights sleep. I tested my back, after all I didn't do a good job putting my shoulder back in last time. But it seemed good. "I think I just over worked some muscles."

"Which ones?"

"Uh, all of them?" I replied weakly.

"Smart, you going to do that again anytime soon?" Toph snorted.

"If I have to," I said seriously.

For a long drawn out moment Toph just looked at me, thinking. "I don't want you to kill yourself doing some hero crap."

"I know, I don't want to do that either."

"Alright, I believe you. Just stick to that. Now lets go and make sure that the fire chick knows who she messed with," she said before getting up and starting the trek over to where the cloud still rose.

"Uh, Toph?" I called out weakly, feeling an embarrassing blush forming. "I can't get up."

Toph burst out laughing as she walked back to me. "Way to go hero."

"Hey, I'm injured here. Show some respect," I said, pouting.

"Pansy," Toph said as she pulled over of my arms over her shoulder and -with a little help from Earth bending- heaved me to my feet. I could have responded to her pansy comment, should have, but suddenly feeling her again me, supporting me, blanked out my mind again. While I should have been making a smart remark I was thinking that she had really soft skin beneath the callouses on her hands, and that's not to mention the rest of her.

"Um," Toph mumbled, while blushing slightly. "So, how did you get over here so fast? It seemed like you just threw us away and then when we landed you were already falling, screaming like a little girl."

I might have made a comment on her blush, or said that I didn't scream like a girl but a mind shattering realization struck me, casting all of that from my mind.

I was standing, mostly, and I could see where I had landed; as well as where the fireball had detonated. What stuck me silent was the fact that I remembered being only a few feet from the ball of flames right before they had impacted with the ground, and...

I looked back at where my body had stamped a Sokka print in the sands of the desert.

I had traveled nearly a kilometer and a half in a fraction of an instant before the explosion, and not only that; I looked up into the sky. I had somehow ended up two hundred feet in the air while doing so.

What the hell just happened to me?

-

It took us a little while to hobble over the thousand and a half feet back to where Yasuragi stood frozen, unable to move Aang's body on the edge of an gargantuan glass crater at least a half a kilometer across that had once been the peaceful oasis. As we came into sight she glared at us with cold uncaring green eyes.

It was harder to face her this time and not attack her. Now that I didn't have the Void showing me Aang trapped beneath her all I saw was a wild eyes woman spitting curses and damnations at me. Her armor, although just an illusion was still shattered and in tatters, hanging from her, held on by a few chinks of chain mail and thread.

"Henkotsu, I command you as your Avatar to kill that tyrant before he destroys everything," she shrieked. I almost pitied her like this, but then I remember that she threatened Toph and Katara and all that held me back from her throat was the knowledge that it was also Aang's. That and the fact that I was about as mobile as an upside down turtle-duck. Damn weak body.

So there I was, hanging between Toph and Katara; both of them working together to do what my unmoving legs could not right now. Both of them cursed and threatened Yasuragi, but they did not attack. I had told them about Aang's entrapment on the way over here. I let them scream for a while as I just hung there, studying my enemy. I was the first Incarna in many thousands of years to survive my encounter with her, and I knew she wanted to know how. Any moment now, she'd get tired of yelling about how she would kill me and ask the big question.

"Well, Sir Incarna? Why don't you just call upon the healing properties of the spirit and get on with killing me," she spat at me. There it was at last; and here we go.

"I have not met with the White Wolf yet."

"Deceiver!" she screeched. "You had too much power to be without the spirit. Do you expect me to believe that an unmerged _human_ was able to teleport over fifteen hundred meters to escape that blast?"

"Well, that's what happened."

"Lie all you want Incarna. No one, especially not a human could attain that kind of power without the spirit."

"You were human," I said evenly

"I was different," she hissed.

"How so?"

"We are completely different!"

"Exactly," I said, getting a confused look from her. "We are complete polar opposites, the Yin and Yang, just like that Incarna and Avatar always are."

"Don't spew these ancient ideals at me deceiver."

"He's not a liar!" yelled Katara.

I wasn't a liar; but the Incarna once was. I remember saying the same thing to a little girl with red hair and gold eyes, long ago. I remember when she trusted me and what I stood for. I remember how I betrayed that trust. So I kept my mouth shut. I had no right to talk.

"He is a power hungry tyrant that has you all tricked," Yasuragi shouted back, trying to lean into Katara for more emphasis.

"I am not a tyrant, and I have not tricked my family into anything; they now know my deepest secrets," I said calmly. Someone had to keep a cool head during all of this. "Though, I cannot deny I crave power."

"The deceiver admits it!" crowed Yasuragi. To her it was vindication, the kind of admission she'd never gotten once, in thousands of years; I'm not such a petty guy that I'd deny her a moment of triumph. Especially since it cost me nothing.

"What?" breathed Katara, looking between me and Yasuragi, obviously lost. Even Toph raised an eyebrow as she felt my heart beat confirm that I was telling the truth.

"It is also true that I will fight, tooth and nail to never give this new power up," I said, staring hard into Yasuragi's eyes. "But, I do not crave power for selfish reasons. Imagine what would have happened today if I had been weak? Would I have been able to save everyone? Yes, me having this power provoked our fight. But what about the next time the Fire-Nation attacks? Or when we finally have to face the Fire Lord? I will not be a burden upon the others, I will be just as powerful as any of them and protect them just as they protect me."

My sister and Toph were both watching me intently in their own ways as I spoke these feelings for the first time.

"I will never hold them back again, and I will never put them in danger as they try to protect weak little Sokka. I am not Incarna, the tyrant. I am Incarna, the powerful, the protector. And the spirits will have no mercy on my enemies."

"Fool," laughed Yasuragi. "Do you really believe that?"

"Yes," I said. There wasn't much else to say.

"Well, your are an even better deceiver than even I thought; you believe your own lies. I almost pity you when He comes for your soul."

She looked almost mournful in that second, as if the idea of killing someone like me made even a hardened killer like her pause. Then it was gone and only conviction remained in her expression. "But know this Sir Incarna, I will return to this body when you least expect it and I will succeed in killing you next time."

"No you won't."

"What?" hissed Yasuragi.

"For one, Aang will never let you over take his body again. He knows you are a danger to us and he will fight you with everything he has next time," I said, drawing smirks from both girls. "And secondly, I'm sure you noticed that his body cannot reach the Avatar state?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" asked Toph.

"Everything," I said quietly. "You see. I can only safely hold about nine to ten percent of the Incarna's power in that cold mode thingy you saw, the 'Incarna state' if you will. I can push it to almost thirteen, but that's _very_ dangerous; for both me and everyone around me. But the thing is, the secondary states, for both me and the Avatar multiply our power by quite a lot. For me it's me ten fold, for the Avatar it's more like twenty. So, if Yasuragi had the Avatar state she would have kicked my ass easily, but she couldn't reach it."

"I'll kill you next time," said Yasuragi while she ground her teeth.

"I thought that I already told you. No, you won't," I said in a painful sweet voice. I stared her down for a long time. There were still a few things I wanted to talk to her about while I had her powerless, but one of them I could begin to even admit to myself.

"Mouretsu said that you wrongfully accused the Old Ones of horrible atrocities and that was what brought on this war."

"One deceiver being guided by the lies of another," Yasuragi said, strangely calm and collected compared to a minute ago.

"After what I just saw, I may have changed my opinion. You forcibly took control of Aang's body and did not even give me chance to prove to you I was not a bad person, you immediately attacked with the intention to kill. How many of my fellow decent Incarnae have you murdered in your genocidal campaign against us? How many Gel-Hassad have you massacred because you could?"

"You were all power hungry and had shown traits that could only lead to monstrosity," said Yasuragi in a low dangerous voice.

"I call you out on acts of tyranny," I said smoothly, ignoring the constant stream of promised demise from the maniacal Avatar before me. "I don't know if Mouretsu is right, but I am more inclined to believe him after seeing the narrow minded psychopath willing to sacrifice her own people fighting a man who has not given any indications of wanting to be a 'tyrant', as you so easily put it."

"I will not give up on the world so easily Sir Incarna," said Yasuragi in a completely honest voice. This was it, I had to say it. I might be scared to death of it, but it needed to be dealt with.

"Its a little rich for you to be talking about tyranny," I said as calmly as I could.

"I will not be tricked by you, Incarna. Spout all of the lies you want," spat Yasuragi.

"What has happened to your mighty Jenkotsu?" I asked softly, and the madness in her eyes dimmed ever so slightly. Maybe she was really listening to me. I suppose I had to hope. "The four strongest bender clans in all of the world were given four scrolls of forbidden techniques by the Avatar soon after the Great War with the Old Ones. Each was told to train one, and _only one_ warrior that could stand as their own army against the forces of oppression and destruction whenever the Avatar is learning a new body, and to be the Avatar's fists whenever he calls upon them. Isn't that right? You created the Jenkotsu as your own elite forces?

"And I'm glad my successor had the strength of mind to create them after all of the bloodshed and lives lost to your war."

"My war?" I said sneering but I put that aside. "Let me ask you this. The world is in total disarray, one nation is trying to rule the world, and they very nearly have. What's left? A few small towns, the Poles, and maybe the resistance of Ba Sing Se? As much as I hate to admit it, I think they have pretty much won. Now let me ask you this; is this not oppression? Is this not leading to the destruction of the world? Well then, where the hell are you precious Jenkotsu now?"

Yasuragi still tried to sneer at me, she even made a feeble attempt at a curse, but I could see I was hitting her where it hurt. "Would you like to hear what the deceiver thinks?"

"No-"

"_Too fucking bad_," I shouted in her face, whispering voices underlying my own as my fury grew cold again. "An annoying lying bastard of a flea bag once told me that every human, Avatar, Incarna and Jenkotsu included can be corrupted; it's part of our flaws as humans. And as much as I now know I hate that furball, I have to admit she was right."

I leaned forward as far as I could while not pulling Katara and Toph with me. "That means that at least some of your Jenkotsu are _behind _this damn war. They have been swayed by money or sex or some other vice and they are now trying to destroy the balance of the world!"

For the first time Yasuragi was silent, I could tell she wanted to scream that I was lying, but she couldn't. She knew on some level that I was right. I closed my eyes for a few moments, calming myself. Finally I felt like I could face this person before me without tearing out her throat and continued. "You know about the Archive, right? The Avatar and the Incarna were once allies, I must have told you about the Archive."

Receiving the smallest of nods I pushed on. "Most of the time a person needs a very specific question to get a specific answer, if they try to absorb too much information they are pulled into the Archive and their mind is washed away by it. Well, as the Incarna I have a much higher resistance to the Archive. Why, I don't really know, I just do. The point is until I merge one way or another with the Spirit the amount of information I can get from the Archive and my own intelligence is severely limited. Think comparing a trickling brook to a raging ocean during a hurricane. Anyway, my point is that I was able to look at a much bigger picture then any of the other Spirit Shapers, and I have come to a very disturbing conclusion."

I paused again, gathering my thoughts and courage in preparation to believe what I was about to say. It was true, every word, but it was horrifying on an unreal level. "Something is wrong in the records. The Gel-Hassad or old Spirit Shapers, whatever you want to call them. They believe that this war is their creation, they think they are in control of it, bending it to their own ends. What they don't know is that there are moles in their organization, that there is another player much larger and more powerful then any of us puppeteering the Gel-Hassad and this entire damn war for his own purposes," I laughed, not a happy laugh, but a laugh of disbelief and a supreme want to forget everything I now knew.

"I'm not smart enough yet to know who or what this shadow is yet, but I do know that everything that has happened in the last hundred years is all a result of him. We are all playing his game and no one even suspects it. Each side thinks that they are in control, but they're all wrong, it's this shadow man that is running the whole thing, we're just the pawns; even you and me."

Yasuragi was deathly still, as I continued on with narrowed eyes. "Anyone who plays us for fools gets what they deserve. I just thought you deserved to know. Just this once Yasuragi, let me do my job. I'm going to find them. I'm going to find them and remind them why they should fear their dreams."

The woman's face fell, and I saw the little girl in her once again... and I felt a tug at my heart as she looked at me with that saddened expression. "Very well Sir Incarna. _If_ you live and do not turn as the others have always done, then may you find them and deal with them as you will. However, the second you turn, the second this boy's confidence in your better nature fades, I will be there. I promise."

"I expect nothing less, little sister," I said quietly in the Ancients' tongue. She shuddered painfully and faded away like mist on the wind. Aang's body slumped to the ground. Katara dashed forward and grabbed Aang as he fell. I had half expected it and shifted a little more of my weight onto Toph who took it in stride. I let out a sigh and fell to my knees, Toph lowering me gently. Aang had passed out completely. "We'll have to try to get into the city secretly tonight."

"Why can't we move now, its only noon?" asked Katara a second later after she made sure Aang was okay. She looked up at me still cradling Aang's unconscious head.

"We'll be able to move in under better cover in the dark, and," I paused feeling a heaviness on my heart. I looked down at Aang, not even able to imagine what he had been feeling. "And we'll have to spend a little time with Aang making him know that we don't hate him for what Yasuragi did."

"Why would he think we blamed him for that?" asked Katara in her dangerous voice.

"Because," I said sadly, "he could see and feel everything Yasuragi did, and he couldn't do anything to stop her from trying to kill us with his own hands."

Katara's pale faced expression as she looked down at Aang and the way she gently stroked his black hair made my heart twist. I guess my little sister was growing up. I remembered when Yue had given me that same look, right before I'd volunteered for that suicide mission that never went off. That wasn't the look you gave someone who was 'just a friend'.

Still, I smiled a little, with my bloody teeth shining in the sun. We were alive. I could worry about removing Aang's potential for wandering hands at a later date; besides, all of us needed a break, Aang and me more than anyone.

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Jade Knight & Richard Caine

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	13. Conclave

_Disclaimer: We are now three... fear us (and we own nothing)_

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Authors note: _Ello peoples! Knight here. I am building my empire. I am raising my forces. Soon it will be time to overthrow the establishment. Resistance is useless._

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Next... We Believe the "**M**" chapters will begin with chapter 16. Look for confirmation later, and move with us!

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Beta Note: _Hi everyone! I'm Kitty, the new beta...not to be confused with Genzou. I'm excited to be on this team of amazing (yet a bit more than slightly crazy) authors, even if I have to get out the white coats every so often. Sigh. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter as much as I did!_

_Enjoy!_

_-Kitty_

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_k... I think thats it for now._

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New Topics added in the Forums; _**The Jenkotsu, the Henkotsu and the Ger-ghanim; who are they?**_. and _**The Incarna. **_Check them out!

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Curtain Up!

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**Sokka: Master of the Black Sword**

Author: The Jade Knight

Co-Author: Richard Caine

Beta: Kitty (A.K.A. kathykatinahat)

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**-The Resistance Saga-**

**Chapter 13**

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The Story of Mai

Part 5: Conclave

-

I was floating in dreams, in the spaces between waking and the deepest of sleep. A long life of training had taught me to be a lucid dreamer. The realm of dreams was one of the greater strengths of the Gel Hassad. We didn't exactly rule there, but we did so much more than any others save perhaps the Gods themselves. I was suspended in what looked like water, light streaming down from a distant source; from where, I couldn't say. I appeared to be drowning, but I didn't struggle for breath. I simply floated. Around me curled a kind of solid mist that caressed and felt warm to the touch. A gradual movement caught my eye and I turned to see something moving through the mists. The form of an armored serpent wove through the empty space in which I hung. Its body plates glinted in the distant moonlight before it twirled around me, winding tighter until we were face to face. It was a creature I had seen before, and around its neck it bore a seal of divine authority-the curved teardrop of Yang in a stylized fashion and set into a bronze disk, hanging on a chain that dangled loosely in the false dream-ocean.

"The Masters call a conclave," the armored serpent hissed to me. I nodded at it. So, the creature was one of the Elders' messengers, then. It continued after my nod. "The Masters request your presence; they divined that the cause of the recent disturbance passed through your area."

"You could say that," I replied, hardly believing I was about to banter with a snake, even this one. I narrowed my eyes. "When will this conclave meet?"

"Soon," the serpent responded. "Within the next six hours, they will converge upon the Archive to meet and plan. Many have been taken by surprise by this; many more who have suspected such difficulties might arise have been roused from their stupor. Tread carefully; many powerful Gel Hassad will be in attendance; including the Haiyahi and your august mother."

Haiyahi was the auditor of the Archive and my mother; what a great combination. Those two got along like sodium and water-they both usually ended up wet and on fire whenever they met. I knew that this was going to go downhill fast. They agreed on basically nothing except the secrecy of the People.

"Tell your masters I will be there, as tradition and honor demands," I replied. Maybe I could stand towards the back of the Archive. If I were lucky maybe they wouldn't notice that I was there. I felt my consciousness being drawn back out of the realm of dreams, and the snake bobbed once before swimming away through the liquid air much like an eel.

I awoke to the novel sensation of someone gently running calloused fingers through my hair. I released a shaky breath and leaned into the hand scratching my scalp. I liked the sensation; it was remarkably pleasant. As I slowly arrived back into consciousness, I marshaled my thoughts and struggled to remember.

I had just finished working over that idiot Jun, and I was walking back down the hallway when I ran into something out of a fireside horror tale. I used my magic on it… and I started screaming. I remember the guards getting me back to my room and then passing out from the strain. Good, memory intact. I opened my eyes to see Zuko looking down at me with a concerned expression. His strong fingers were tangled in my hair, and tightened when he saw me look up at him.

"Are you okay?" he asked in a rough voice.

"Yeah," I winced a little, sitting up in my cot. "I feel like I just got hit by a rampaging komodo-rhino, but other than that I'm fine."

"Good," Zuko said, standing up and brushing his robes off a little. He gave me a sidelong glance with his good eye. "Do you know what happened?"

I shook my head. I could have really told him a lot of things, but honestly I didn't know what had happened to me. "I don't. I was just walking down the hall after chewing out our favorite little bunch of 'contractors' when I just felt something."

"You weren't the only one who felt it," Zuko said with a grimace. "Ty Lee and the Black Twins had fainting spells, and Azula got almost seasick. Even I could feel it, kind of like moving in heavy water or something. The whole crew is complaining about being watched; and I believe them."

I nodded. Zuko was much more sensitive to spirits than I'd thought previously, if he felt anything at all. Either that or it was something that knew Zuko personally. The only entity I could think of that knew of Azula's trio and Zuko at such a personal level was the Avatar, or his traveling companion who could be the next Incarna. Either of them could have that effect if they traveled through the spirit world in a clumsy way, and neither of them appeared to be masters of it to my limited knowledge. The things around the eye though… that experience was going to give me nightmares for a week to come.

"We think it was a spirit, but we don't know for sure. There are all those ghost stories about ships vanishing in this area. Maybe there's something to that."

"And you actually believe that?" I asked, incredulous. Zuko gave me a withering look.

"I saw Admiral Zhao get eaten by the Ocean," he said, and I recoiled a little from the acid in his voice. "I'm flexible when it comes to strange things. I've seen weirder with my own eyes."

Fair enough. I'd heard through the grapevine that the Ocean Spirits could verify that the pitiful few escapees' tales of the final battle of the siege of the northern water tribe were indeed accurate. Military Lesson number forty-six; don't piss off the local deities when invading a country. They might become a giant koi monster and shatter your fleet like a bundle of twigs.

"Sorry," I muttered. "I'm still a little out of it."

Zuko's expression softened a little bit. "It's okay. I thought it was a bit much at first too, but the reports and feelings have been too consistent. Whatever it was, it's gone now. I brought you some tea."

I gratefully took the cup from him and let the feeling of steam on my face clear my mind. Even the Conclave was worried about this. Something must have happened in the Archive, too, or this wouldn't be happening. This was bigger than some ancient ghosts terrifying random ships in the night. This was full on spirit upset of some kind. I looked at Zuko.

"Thanks," I said, taking a sip from the cup he'd handed me. "I feel a little better. But I think maybe I should rest a little longer. I still feel dizzy."

"Whatever you say," Zuko said, leaning forward to give me a kiss. I grabbed the front of his tunic and pulled him in a little deeper. When we separated for breath, I relaxed back into my bed and smiled at him. I watched as he walked out of the room with a thoughtful expression on his face. I wondered what he was thinking. Oh well, nothing for it.

I began the hour-long trance state that would take me to the Archive when I was by myself. I had a meeting to attend.

-

Katara

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Katara of the Water Tribe was a person of singular will; yes, she was still a fourteen-year-old girl, and she had inevitable lapses of focus. However, for a girl of her age they were few and far between. She was occasionally wrong, but never in doubt. She could count her true doubts on one hand; Jet's redemption, Zuko in the cave beneath Ba Sing Se, and here in front of a campfire in the middle of a devastated oasis.

She shuddered a little in the deceptively cold air, looking at the body of the Avatar resting across her lap. The fight she had seen today shook her; it made her doubt again. Katara hated doubt. She stole a sidelong glance at her brother, the brother that she had known her entire life. He was goofy, caring, and had the worst sense of humor she'd ever run into (aside from her own father).

He could also fight like Ocean itself. She knew what that meant too… she'd seen what Ocean had done to the entire Fire Nation fleet, swatted aside like so many toys by an angry god.

The changes had come so fast, for all of them. The last year of her life had been unlike anything she'd ever expected. The Avatar; who would have thought that she would become his _teacher_? She took a brief moment to examine her own hands; hands that had shattered war machines and scattered dozens of men with a single strike. She was a bender, perhaps the greatest water bender in the world, though she'd be damned if she would say it aloud the way Toph constantly bragged. It was just unseemly. Still, she could control the very blood of another; move them against their own will. It was an awesome power, yes, and one that came with responsibilities that scared her just as much as they excited. She knew that she wasn't the only one experiencing changes: Aang had discovered he was the last air bender; Toph had abandoned her family and a life of riches. Change was a constant with them and that was why she valued the steady things she did have. They were her little family, no matter how strange, that she fought tooth and bloody nail for to keep together and fighting for the world's salvation.

She especially valued Sokka, her stupid brother, with his kindness and sense of wonder, with his determination in spite of his own lack of bending ability. He had been a constant for her, for all of them really. He was the planner and plotter, the dogged hunter, and the sarcastic relief when life crushed down on them with the weight of their task. He was so solid to her, just a few weeks ago, someone she felt she knew right down to the bones.

But today…today he had moved in a way no human could, stuttering so quickly that he looked as if he was in more than one place at once. She had sparred with Toph herself, and they were pretty even as far as she measured it. Toph was a genius earth bender, as well as the only metal bender in the known world. Yet her brother, her 'powerless' brother, had fought her like she was a minor irritation; _unarmed_. She couldn't suppress the memory of him hurtling through the sky. He had screamed in a thousand voices at once while he clashed with the ghost of Avatar Yasuragi, wielding that damn black sword that _ate light_. It was a performance that would have made anyone gawk, with Gods fighting a battle from a legend so old that she'd never even heard of it before. It was as if she had never known her brother at all.

She honestly wondered if she really did know him. She watched as he tended the fire, Toph sitting as close to him as she dared to. Her brother would look over at Aang with those kind eyes of his every so often, waiting for him to awaken. The kindness was still there, the worry about his friend; however, there were differences now. Before, where there would have been the anxiety of the unknown, the powerlessness of not being able to do anything, now there was only a grim certainty in his gaze.

It hurt, she realized, looking at him. Why couldn't she have seen it as it came? Had they been so blind to his 'handicap' that they couldn't see how he'd grown, how he'd turned into something more than any of them had ever dreamed he could be? She was his sister; this was her job to know. It was her job to protect him, just as he felt he had to protect her.

The thought hit her like a solid slug to the gut. For the first time in her life she understood what Sokka must have felt when he watched her and Aang spar. She had been powerless during that fight, waged with tools and techniques she couldn't begin to fully understand. Sokka had tried to explain some of it, but it was like he really didn't know the best words to explain it, and he tripped over himself. Toph seemed to understand a bit, but she said it was his business.

"If he ain't going to tell you, then I'm not going to either," she'd said. Katara had accepted that, because she had to. She still hated it.

Katara started as she felt Aang's dark head begin to toss and turn on her thigh. She smiled down at him with a sense of relief, a weight off her shoulders.

"Katara?" Aang asked in a dry whisper.

"I'm here Aang," she replied quietly. "We're all here."

"Is everyone safe?" he asked, and his gray eyes bored into hers with intensity that she'd almost never seen him have. She hugged him closer on instinct.

"Yes Aang, we're all safe," Sokka said, standing up gingerly with the aid of a piece of palm that he'd carved into a makeshift staff. "I disabled her."

Aang closed his eyes and smiled a little. "You know, it sounds really weird when you say that Sokka."

Her brother looked slightly crestfallen until Aang opened his eyes and his smile became wry. "But good weird; you know, like you learning to fight in Kiyoshi makeup."

For a second everyone around the campfire gawked at Aang, until Sokka fell back into the sand with a loud laugh. Once he started laughing, he didn't stop. It wasn't even that good of a joke, but once he started to release the tensions of the day he couldn't stop. Finally after a good minute of cackling, Sokka sat up, wiping a tear from his eye. Katara passed Aang a water skin, which he drained slowly.

"What are you talking about Twinkletoes?" Toph asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, the big man here," Katara spoke up, smiling at the memory, and taking the small water skin back from the Avatar. "He decided that women weren't such great fighters when he was back at the South Pole. It wasn't until we went to Kiyoshi Island and he got his butt kicked by a girl named Suki that he learned to take women seriously in a fight. She trained him in their style, you know the war fans?"

Toph nodded, and Katara felt her smile spreading further across her face. She doubted Toph would ever forget her first kiss at the Serpent's Pass. "Well, he lost a bet, and he had to train in their full gear; dress, white face paint, and all."

"Snoozles wore a dress?" Toph asked, mystified.

"He looked good in it too," Aang said with an evil grin. He sat up slowly, and his grin faded a little as he looked into the fire. "But I guess that isn't what's on everyone's mind right now."

"No," Katara said. She wrapped an arm around Aang's shoulder and pulled him close. "Are you okay Aang?"

"No," he said in a whisper. He looked at Sokka across from him, who looked straight back without blinking. There wasn't any harshness on Sokka's face, but there was tension. Toph laid a hand on his shoulder and he looked to her for a second before relaxing just a little. The unnerving silence continued on for almost another full minute until Aang spoke up again.

"The monks told me about you, you know," Aang said, his eyes unfocused, remembering. "They said that once upon a time there was a greedy man, who tried to destroy the world. They said his spirit would come back; it always did. It had terrible powers, and a drive that was beyond any human. He and I had always fought, they said; since the beginning of time. They told me that I would know what I had to do when I met him; that I always had."

"But they were wrong, weren't they?" Aang asked, looking up from the fire. "That's not what you are, is it?"

"No," Sokka said quietly. "It's not who I am."

"And I don't know what to do," Aang continued. He twisted his mouth in a deep frown. "I really don't."

Silence once again descended, and the tension rose again, just a little. It felt to Katara like an eternity as she looked at her brother and her… well Aang, caught in some kind of invisible tug of war. Once again Aang broke the silence.

"We weren't always enemies were we?" Aang asked again. Sokka gave a smile, a distant expression crossing his face.

"No we weren't," Sokka said. He closed his eyes and let out a slow sigh before continuing. "A long time ago, we worked together. We protected the world, and between us nothing stood a chance. The world was a better place then, healthier, more balanced. Until we decided to fight it out because of our greed and pride."

Aang said nothing for another few seconds. He looked up and he met Sokka's eyes without as much as a flinch. He got to his feet and extended his hand. "Then I'm willing to let bygones be bygones. I screwed up as the Avatar. I figure I can't hold a grudge for something you remember from forty thousand years ago."

Katara had a strange sense that she was watching history, right in front of her, as Sokka leaned heavily on his stick to stand up and gripped Aang's arm with his own. Her brother's blue eyes seemed watery in the firelight, even though he was smiling.

"I can live with that," he said quietly. "It's been too long, Brother."

There was something in the way that Sokka said the word that was different than how she used it, and how she'd heard others use it. Aang gave a brilliant smile, the kind that gave Katara more doubt. That smile pulled at a part of her she had thought Aang was outside of, and it made simple things complicated in a way she hated. When Aang spoke again his tenor voice was low and filled with authority.

"You're right, it really has been too long," Aang said and there was something in the air that crackled like static. "We've got a lot of work to catch up on."

"Yeah, now you have even more People of Mass Destruction to boss around. Ozai will be thrilled, I'm sure," Sokka said with a grin. Aang snorted.

"You're right," Sokka replied to the unspoken comment. He turned and stuck his tongue out at Katara. "Bossing is the women's job."

Aang's laugh was cut off when Katara stood and bonked him upside the head. Sokka's ended when he suddenly sank three inches into the ground and lost his balance to fall flat on his face. Just like that, all the strangeness of the day faded away, and there was her family again. Her stupid chauvinistic family, but hey, you don't get to choose your brother. You love him in _spite_ of his extremely obvious and glaring flaws.

After the tussling had died down and the boys were appropriately chastised for their unmanly behavior, they all settled down around the fire again. Aang pulled out his dried tofu and Sokka his seal jerky, a special leftover treat courtesy of Hama, the insane blood bender. The rest of them quietly ate bread and cheese. They were all happily munching away when Sokka spoke up again.

"I'm going to need another teacher," he said. Sometime during the meal, he'd gotten out the Pai Sho tile that Piando had given him and was twiddling it between his fingers with a thoughtful look on his face.

"That could be hard," Toph said. "We haven't exactly been tripping over people who can do this kind of thing."

"I don't know," said Aang after a second of consideration. "Maybe we were; we just weren't looking for them."

Sokka nodded in distraction, as if he were trying to think of something. His eyes got wide and he snapped his fingers. "The fortune teller!"

"What, you mean Aunt Wu?" Katara asked with a raised eyebrow. "I thought you said she was full of nonsense?"

"Yeah," he muttered, looking unhappy. "But the last few weeks have convinced me that my definition of science isn't exactly complete."

"You mean you're actually admitting that you were wrong?" Aang asked with a mischievous grin. "Katara, write that down somewhere. We need to record this for the history books."

"Hey," Sokka said defensively. "I admit that I'm wrong all the time!"

"You do, don't you," Toph pondered thoughtfully. "Hey, does that mean you're wrong most of the time?"

Sokka's answer was a deep growl. "Look, I'm serious here. How did she perform her… I dunno, scrying?"

Katara thought long and hard about it. She called up every memory that she had about that time, and laid out what she remembered in all its spooky detail. Aang filled in a few details of his own; ones that made Sokka narrow his eyes to slits.

"Well I'll be a seal-penguin," he muttered. "She's the real thing."

"I thought only Gel Hassad could scry like that," Aang said. Katara looked between her brother and Aang.

"Nah," Sokka said with a shake of his head. "Humans can learn Spirit-shaping and prophecy. That kind of stuff is basically like bending. If you do the right movements with your chi, things can happen. It's just that they're so hard to learn for your average human that most would never bother. Not to mention that I think both sides in the war suppressed as much knowledge as they could. Still, I guess some people just have the gift."

"Alright," Toph interjected, just before Katara. "You two are talking about all this like it's the freaking weather. How about you tell us what exactly you're talking about? What are the Gel Hassad? And what about that thing Yasuragi kept calling us...Henkotsu, or something?"

"The Gel Hassad," Sokka began with a frown, leaning back against a downed tree trunk. "I guess they are like people who have the real gift for bending, only with the tricks that I use. Most of the time they look like people, and I guess they're pretty human, but a long time ago the same people who made the Incarna spirit and helped to make the Avatar the bridge between the spirit world and ours created them. Most of the time they spend around people, they wear masks to remain undetected. I don't know if I could describe what they look like, but trust me. If you ever saw one unmasked, you'd sure as heck remember it."

Aang nodded. "When Yasuragi was… going crazy, I got a good look at a lot of her memories. I know what they look like, and he's right. Until you've seen one, they're kind of hard to describe. They used to serve the Incarna I guess. They were pretty scary guys. They used to be able to walk through walls, and they were pretty sneaky. When they could look like just a normal person they were pretty hard to spot. You sort of had to sleep with one eye open if they were mad at you back then."

Sokka looked a little sheepish. "Yeah. You might still, they're a lot of them still around."

"Really?" Aang asked in surprise. "I thought they were mostly gone."

"No," Sokka replied with a firm shake of his head. "There aren't millions of them, but they're still around. You met the Yu Yan archers once, right?"

"Holy bison," Aang cursed with his eyes wide. "You're right! I didn't even think of that. They fought just like Gel Hassad!"

"Because they are," Sokka said grimly. "They're a clan that must have thrown in with the Fire Lord. Their Gel Hassad name is more like Yelem Ye'ghan. I recognized those red tattoos from my new memories. The ones you described are Gel Hassad designs. The Old Ones liked red tattoos. Their skin was brown, almost black, so normal ones didn't work very well."

"So," Aang said in an attempt to change an uncomfortable subject. "What makes you think Aunt Wu was right on?"

"Her methods are right," Sokka said with a grim look. "Other than the cloud reading; that's just nonsense."

"So her other prophecy might be right?" Katara asked slowly. Sokka nodded.

"Probably is," he said regretfully. "Why, did she tell you something?"

She was sure Sokka caught her sidelong glance at Aang before her eyes snapped back. "Nothing that important."

Unfortunately her nervous giggle made Sokka look between her and Aang once and shake his head. Toph had a smirk that said she knew Katara was lying. She probably even suspected about what. Sokka sighed. "Whatever. She's too far away, and I don't have time to find her. Besides, I don't trust prophecy much anyways. It's too easy to interpret, to bend however you want to. I'm more interested in my other skills- I'm not even sure what they are."

"What about those Henkotetsu things?" Katara asked, desperate to shift the focus away from herself.

"Yeah," Aang said suddenly. "I'd never heard of them until Yasuragi started talking."

"Hmph," Sokka said, looking into the fire and visibly marshaling his thoughts. "The word is Henkotsu. Aang, have you ever wondered why Katara and I found you when no one else had? How you were able to find Toph? Why monk Giyatsu had such an interest in you and treated you like his own son?"

Aang blinked. "Hmm…"

"It isn't random, and it isn't 'destiny'," Sokka said, making a curving quotation symbol when he said destiny. "It actually works like science. You guys are all special, not just Aang. Each of you is a part of what makes the Avatar. Every Avatar needs people to help him, they always have. Every time an Avatar is re-born, there are four people called to him, one for each element. They're special people, they learn things no one else can, faster and smarter than anyone else in their generation. They can do the impossible; bend metal, bend people's blood. I remember what they used to be able to do. Katara, the last version of you I remember could control entire armies with her water bending. At high noon."

Katara felt her breath catch as Sokka continued. "Toph, you could lift tanks from a distance and throw them like toys. Without using the ground beneath them. I watched you crush… gliders, I guess you'd call them. You just crumpled the metal they were made of while they were in mid air."

Toph had her head tilted to the side, and Sokka sighed. "They are able to use the same thing that gives the Avatar power, but they are uniquely suited to teaching him. Sometimes they express their connection in strange ways, like taking after their element really strongly in their physical appearance. I don't know how it works; it's too complicated for me to understand. I don't even know how they made the system. But it does work, and it always had."

"So our strength isn't our own," Toph said slowly. Sokka shook his head fiercely.

"That isn't the right way to think of it," Sokka replied. "It is you, it always has been, just the 'you' that is strong willed and gifted, that part of you has always been around to help Aang out when he needed it. You guys are a lot like him, returning to the world over the years to help out."

Toph seemed mollified by this, and sat back crossing her legs and looking deep in thought. Katara turned towards her brother with a hopeful tone in her voice. "Are there anything like that for you?"

"They're called the Ger Ghanim," Sokka said. "One for each of the greater Arts, just like the four elements. There is one for Void, Pattern, Fate, and Dream. Each of them can teach me things about how to use the gifts that I've been given. Problem is I have no idea how to find them."

"Maybe it'll be like it was for me," Aang offered with a hopeful grin. "Maybe they'll just land in your lap. How do you know they aren't looking for you too?"

"After what I pulled today," Sokka muttered. "I'd be surprised if someone didn't show up really soon hunting for me."

"You mean the big explosion?" Katara asked. Sokka shuffled his feet in the sand.

"Not exactly," he replied after a moment. "More like the things I used to help beat Yasuragi made a lot of… noise I guess you could say, in the spirit realm, especially where the Gel Hassad tend to spend their time. I kind of sent them a rude message while I was fighting with Aang."

"You left a hidden race of people who walk through walls a rude note?" Aang asked with a lifted eyebrow. "What did you say, exactly?"

"Er," Sokka rubbed the back of his head. "Something about how I was fighting the Avatar to save my life and they should call back later. Now please get out of my library? Sort of like that, but a lot more rushed and with more curses."

Aang looked slightly ashamed until Toph started laughing uproariously. The other three gave her a look as she wheezed. "That's brilliant! You showed up out of nowhere and stole their Archive thingy without even bothering to tell them you were back. I bet you made them wet their pants."

Even Aang laughed a little at the image, especially since he knew exactly what a scared Gel Hassad looked like. It was pretty absurd. "So they'll be looking for _you_ now?"

"Yeah," Sokka said with a shake of his head. "But I'm not interested in their wars or what I saw of their plans. Yasuragi isn't the only one with a forty thousand year grudge. The Gel Hassad nearly went extinct when the last war ended. It's only because they hid that they managed to survive. I think they're still pissed about that."

"Oh well," Toph said, supremely unconcerned. She pillowed her head on the arms she crossed behind herself on a nearby tree trunk. "It's not like we had any shortage of enemies before. Just put them on the list. Besides, with the four of us, who's really going to want a rumble?"

Katara sighed, but nodded. "That's true. If they really know who you are, they aren't going to want a fight."

"No more than a Fire bender wants to fight the Avatar," Sokka countered. He didn't seem convinced. "They'll be scared as hell, but they might do it anyway. Remember, I've been gone a lot longer than Aang. There are still stories about him; pretty much everyone's forgotten about me. The only things left about me are myths that have become so twisted around and re-worked who knows what in them is real? Even after looking around in the Archive I'm not sure what I can do. I mean, I have a vague sense, maybe, but Aang can do stuff none of us has ever thought of before. Remember what happened at the spirit oasis?"

"Yeah," Aang said quietly. He gave Sokka a rueful smirk. "At least you can ask someone about how to do this. I don't have your Archive thingy, all I've got is Avatar Roku and his advice, and he can be really hard to understand sometimes."

"At least Roku is trying to help you," Sokka countered. "The Archive has all the personality and well wishes of a granite wall. It does what it does, no more or less. Stupid thing can't even understand some of the things I ask. It just told me to change what I was asking because it couldn't understand. On top of that, there's so much info there I could spend the rest of my life just looking for the details of what I could do. No, I think I need a real teacher."

Katara was silent for a second. "Aang, Sokka, why... why did she hate you so much?"

"Yasuragi?" Aang asked quietly.

"Mmm hmm," Katara hummed. Aang closed his eyes and turned his head to Sokka. Sokka looked very troubled as looked at his hands, flipping the Pai Sho tile around with a nervous speed. Neither of them said anything for a very long time.

"We need to know," Katara whispered. "If she comes back, maybe we can talk some sense into her."

She expected many things, a sarcastic comment from Sokka, Aang to simply avoid the question. Hearing Aang laugh so hollowly and Sokka sit so silently was outside of her experience. She'd never heard Aang sound like that, and her heart prayed she'd never again hear a boy so full of life, hope, and strength sound so utterly broken.

"It isn't that easy," Sokka said, drawing his sword from his lap and staring at his reflection in the blade. "Nothing I will ever do will make up for what she suffered. She can't be reasoned with. Only disabled."

"There's a good reason for that," Aang said. He looked at Katara and his gray eyes were suddenly ancient. She felt a small shiver of fear as his gaze weighed her. "Katara, what would you have done if you'd met the perfect man? A water bender who could teach you things that you never even suspected you were capable of? A man who was strong and wise. Who took you as his student, as his lover? The man who was the center of your world and who you believed thought the same of you."

"Then," Sokka picked up. "In an instant killed everyone else you knew, in a terrible storm of power and almost assassinating you in your own bedroom after... well you can guess. To this day I'm not sure how she got away and back to the human resistance forces. That first strike crippled the benders' attack power. Only the Air Nomad's fleets were undamaged, because the Gods protected their temples through an old deal."

"She was the best Avatar that ever lived at using her power," Aang said softly. "She loved him more than anything, more than her calling, more than her life, and he betrayed her. So she struck back, and she's been striking back ever since. She saved the world from Mouretsu's tyranny, but she didn't do it to save the world; she did it because she _hated_ him Katara. I've never felt that kind of hate before. It makes me sick."

Aang looked at Sokka. "What makes me even more sick is that if I were her, I'm not sure I would have felt _any _differently."

Aang was quiet for a moment but when he spoke again his voice was firm with resolve. "But I'm not her, and Sokka isn't Mouretsu."

"Not at all," Sokka said with a strong voice. Toph's hand rested on the small of his back, and he slumped forward. "But today I remembered; and I don't think I'll ever stop wondering."

"We've already had this conversation once today Snoozles," Toph said warningly.

"What would I do without you?" he asked with a hitching laugh. "Always there to kick my ass when I need it."

He couldn't see her face, but both Aang and Katara caught her blush in the firelight. She withdrew her hand from his back and sat quietly once more. The silence dragged out but as time went on, they all began to relax slightly. Aang stood up slowly and stretched as the moon finally rose in the distance. He seemed grateful for the distraction as he and Sokka looked up at it.

Aang gave Sokka a sidelong glance. "You can talk to her now, you know."

Sokka shook his head. "I figure she's a busy lady. I don't want to bother her yet. Maybe when all this is over, I'll say hi. I have a feeling that she knows just how much I miss her."

"Who's this?" Toph interjected, sounding a little nervous. Katara knew instantly when both Aang and Sokka looked up at the moon.

"First girl I ever really loved," Sokka said frankly. He closed his eyes and smiled. "She died to save the world. She became the Moon Spirit, sacrificed her soul without even a moment of hesitation. She was the bravest person I've ever known."

"The day the moon disappeared," Toph said quietly. Sokka nodded.

"You knew about that?" Aang asked curiously. Toph nodded.

"Yeah," she said. "I was out in the gardens when the moon disappeared. Mom and dad freaked out and had the servants come and drag me inside. The world, I dunno, it felt really strange for about an hour. It was like all the vibrations were muffled or something. Then everything was back to normal."

"That was Yue," Sokka whispered. "I do miss her, more than I really like to talk about, but she's up there and she's looking after us. I know it."

"How?" Toph asked curiously. Sokka smiled a little wider.

"Because she made me a promise once," he said.

"She is," Aang added quietly. "When I ran off while we were on the ship going to the Fire Nation, she saved me from drowning."

"That's my girl," Sokka whispered, pride in his voice. Katara could see Toph growing more and more fidgety until Sokka looked back at the fire. "Oh well, even with all this spirit…thingy stuff I don't think it would work out. The last person I want to piss off is a giant koi fish that can flatten cities when ticked."

"Yeah, he's kind of the jealous type," Aang said with a surprising amount of authority. Sokka nodded.

"Figures you'd know. He's one of your boys after all," he said with a sigh. He smiled though and gestured for Aang to follow him. "Come on, we've got some things to talk about, you know Yin to Yang and all that stuff."

Aang shook his head and the two of them walked off to a nearby dune. Katara turned to Toph and gave her a smile. "Don't worry about that, it's just an old hurt for him now."

"At least now I know why he looks at the moon every night," Toph said quietly. Katara shifted a little.

"I'm sorry about Aang today," she said. Toph waved her hand.

"Nah, he was out of his mind," Toph replied. Katara giggled a little.

"No, not that silly," she said with a shake of her head. "I was talking about when he started talking and you had to shove him into the hole."

"Oh," Toph said with a slight blush on her cheeks. "That."

Toph kicked the sand under her bare feet with a frown of concentration. "I dunno, maybe Twinkletoes is right. Maybe I should just tell him."

"You were the one who was worried about what might happen," Katara countered. After all, she knew just how dumb her brother was when it came to most women. Yue was probably the only exception she'd ever seen. "My brother can be a real meat head sometimes."

"I know that," Toph said, curling up a little in front of the fire, looking troubled. "But… I don't know. Today changed things, you know? He has so much to deal with. No matter how brave I was looking out there today, I was scared Katara."

Toph shuddered slightly in the cold desert air. "I could hear his heart when he saved us, threw us clear of that fire ball. His heart had almost stopped. It was struggling to beat. He was doing things that weren't just risky, they were nearly suicidal. He's okay now, but I have this feeling I might not have much more time with him. I don't want to sound depressed or something, but it was tough you know? We aren't exactly on a happy little picnic here, even without extra weirdness. I don't want to lose my chance because I didn't speak up when I could have."

"I understand," Katara said soothingly, putting her hand on Toph's shoulder as she sat down on the log next to Toph. "Whatever you want to do, Aang and I support your decision. It's yours to make. Besides after the last time I tried to make you do anything it didn't really end well. I've learned from it."

"Yeah, prison sucked," Toph commented, and then grinned. "Even if you are a sweaty, stinky genius."

Toph punched Katara in the shoulder while they both laughed a little. Katara took a little care to hide her wince. Toph still hit like an avalanche. The two of them sat in a companionable silence. Suddenly Toph began cackling like a madwoman for no apparent reason. Her smile had become truly evil. Katara saw Aang and Sokka walking back towards them, Sokka draping one arm over Aang's shoulder while expounding on something in a truly bombastic looking fashion.

"What is it?" Katara asked. Toph wheezed a little before explaining.

"Twinkletoes made the mistake of asking Snoozles over there about modern water tribe traditions. I think Sokka just got to what he's calling the 'courting rituals' or something. I guess Aang needs to ask him if he wants to really go out on a date with you or something. Snoozles is acting kind of clueless, but I'm beginning to wonder if he isn't doing his best to make Twinkletoes squirm. It sure sounds like it."

Katara snarled under her breath. "Why that little… I'll show him."

"Stow it Katara," Toph said, grabbing her arm as she burst to her feet in indignant feminine pride. "He's just jerking Aang's chain a little. Do you _really_ think he'd stop you two from doing anything?"

"You don't know Sokka like I do Toph," Katara responded with a fierce scowl. "He's got this stupid overprotective side to him. Now that he can actually back it up with force, it'll be even worse."

"I think I know Sokka pretty well, actually," Toph said quietly. Katara started at Toph's suddenly very serious tone. "I never doubted what he could be once he got serious. Can you say the same? Besides, everyone needs to be humbled every once in a while; even Aang. Plus, when is a better guy than Aang going to show up, huh? I thought you guys weren't even involved 'that way' yet, or something."

"Well I just don't want him getting into my business," Katara huffed. Toph snorted.

"Like you get into his?" Toph asked dryly. "Sometimes I wonder who the blind one is around here. Look, let him have his fun. We won't have much more time for it. Life's about to get ugly and I don't think it's gonna get better any time soon. Save the worry for when we need it, Sugar Queen."

Katara shut her mouth with a clacking sound. Fine; she'd listen for now. But if Sokka did something stupid, she didn't care if he did have weird superpowers, she would hang him upside down with ice from his ankles for a week. That was a promise.

-

Mai

-

I stepped out of my body and ran down the hallways of the airship until I reached the open decks below. I threw my spectral body out into the open sky, relishing the feeling of flight in the spirit world. I curled up into a ball and let the wind blow my hair away from my face for a long moment before I completed the sutra that sent my soul hurtling towards the no-where that was the Archive.

The Conclave of the Archive was something that met rarely; usually once every year, and then only for a day or so. Mostly it was just a giant status update on what the People had been up to that year. As such it was horribly boring by and large as people exaggerated or emphasized their efforts in an attempt to win status from the Great Council.

However, there had just been a conclave a few weeks ago. My mother had attended it as our representative on the Great Council, the 'governing body' of the Gel Hassad. In truth they were much more like the inmates of the asylum than its wardens. They were fractious political schemers with plans that ran counter to one another at every possible juncture.

In short, they were very human.

I was expecting the usual nonsense. I was in for a bit of a surprise.

As I cleared the last archway, dressed in a seeming of gossamer cloth and walking about in my true form I stumbled onto something unheard of. The gently sloping floor leading up to the archive had shifted, parts raising and falling as if the entire room were made out of relatively uniform blocks that had been rattled about and left in a careless configuration. Pillars and depressions made the entire vaulted room a haphazard mess. With a curse, I climbed up and began to hop my way down to the lake. Of course, when I headed out towards the lake I realized with a start that it wasn't a lake anymore.

A perfect silvery sphere hovered in the center of the room. Ever few moments it would change color and one of the many pillars that had been the organically curved floor from before flashed in a colored sympathy before returning to wet black stone. A few others had arrived already, standing a respectable distance from the strange sphere of memory. I was so busy watching the whole process as I leaped from uneven pillar to uneven pillar that I nearly ran into the third great surprise, maybe the greatest one of all.

She floated there, white ribbons and sashes, tan skin, stark white hair, and eyes so blue that I'd never seen their like. Several other Gel Hassad were watching her warily, for she was not one of the People. Her form was translucent, occasionally flashing with white lights and crackling with the sparks and ozone scent of raw spiritual power. The only being who appeared to have approached her was a man that I recognized as the Master of the Archive, Haiyahi. He had no other Gel Hassad name, and was famous for his ability with a sword. They said perhaps he was the finest swordsman in the world. He was also the most intelligent man I had ever met.

I pulled aside at the last moment and landed only one pillar's width, perhaps ten meters, away from the strange woman. This close, she looked like she was almost my age. Her brilliant eyes, back lit by her own radiance, locked with mine and Haiyahi looked at me as well, his beard tendrils moving in a gesture of mild surprise. I felt a moment of fear as her gaze lingered, judging me. Finally she turned back to Haiyahi, as if I had never been there, with an enigmatic smile. Her soprano voice echoed even though it was soft enough that I barely heard her.

"It is true," she spoke. "He has begun to find himself. This is an inevitable response to his actions, to his will."

At this, the woman made a vague gesture at the floating sphere, and a hint of distant fondness entered her voice. "This is not without some precedent, even if it caught you off guard old man. Besides, my beloved has ever been a surprising man. I don't doubt he'll continue to cause you heartburn sensei."

"You may be right," Haiyahi responded. His long tendrils lashed about him in a shrugging motion. "Goodness knows that he was a handful for me, and I only had to put up with his presence for a few days. I wish I could have given him more."

"You gave him the Weapon," the woman responded, patting Haiyahi on the cheek. "With it he can challenge even the might of Azathoth itself. The Dark Sultan's pawns will fear him once more. How goes the other work?"

"Well, my lady," Haiyahi said. "But as with all things, time is not our ally."

"I have every confidence in your artisans," she said with a genuine smile. "Though your followers here leave much to be desired."

She whirled suddenly and waved her other hand. The Gel Hassad that had been sneaking up on her, that I hadn't even noticed, flew away from her towards the distant wall screaming and clutched his head in horrible agony. As he flew away I recognized him; he was a powerful shaper and no slouch with spirit forces, but the woman's sheer will hurled him aside like a toy, blasting through layers of warding and shields with a cracking of green hell fire and brilliant white light.

I had never heard a man scream like that before. He sounded as if he had lost his mind. Her soprano now echoed with an authority and volume that made me clutch my ears reflexively in pain. "Reign in your minions Architect or I will teach them something of the nature of the God they were fools enough to threaten, if only by proxy."

"A thousand apologies honored guest," Haiyahi said. He looked at the gathered Gel Hassad and spoke clearly, even though his accent was as deliberate and wifty as it always had been. "I believe no one else will trouble you."

There was nothing threatening in his voice. It was made all the more intimidating because of his lack of anger. I shifted nervously as the white haired woman swept that burning gaze across the entire room. Satisfied that the other Gel Hassad had completely frozen in their places, she turned back to him as if nothing had happened.

"There is the matter," she said, once again in her quiet whisper. "Of the gathering."

"We will compensate for it, I assure you my young friend," Haiyahi said. "What kind of teacher would I be if I let circumstance derail my lessons?"

"A poor one, which you aren't," the woman said with a nod. She smiled at Haiyahi again. "Tell him when you meet him next that I send all my love, and that I will be ready when the time comes, just as I promised I would be."

"I will do this My Lady," he responded with a deep bow. "May your divine will shine brightly on your travels and on the dreams of Man."

"And may your plans ever be fruitful," she responded. She turned to look right at me, and her dress, hair, and eyes flashed to a malevolent red. "We will have need of the Herald soon. Find them Architect, and teach them, lest they make a mistake for which there is no redemption."

Then the frightening teenage girl with the vague voice was gone and only Haiyahi and myself remained within fifty meters of the hovering sphere of shifting colors. The old Gel Hassad leapt over to me with the dexterity of a mountain goat-puma, landing on all fours beside me. "She's something else, isn't she?"

"Who," I asked after taking a second to master my voice. "Who was that?"

"What might be more accurate," Haiyahi mused. He looked distant for a few seconds, pointedly ignoring me, and turned back with another enigmatic look. "She is a friend; a powerful friend little Mai."

"A friend of whom?" I asked.

"Why us of course," he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. He turned away from me before I could ask just who exactly this 'Us' was and Haiyahi gave a broad smile with his shark teeth at an approaching form that I knew depressingly well. "Lady Xiao, as always, it is a pleasure."

The old coot said it as if he actually meant it. With Haiyahi who the hell knew? My mother however, wasn't terribly impressed.

"Elder Haiyahi," mother replied. "It is so good to see you."

"My dear Miyun," Haiyahi smiled. "You lie as well as always. Well, I for one wish for this to be underway. My apologies for my earlier guest. She decided to stop by early, and I was not one to deny a Lady's request."

"She rated higher than a Conclave? One that you called personally?" my mother countered.

"My dearest Miyun," Haiyahi said, and his voice suddenly became cold and hard. "If you are foolish enough to slight a Celestial God, by all means leave me out of it. I for one enjoy my life, even in my old age. I would have thought you did as well."

He took advantage of my mother's remarkable imitation of a cat-carp to round up the rest of the attendees into a semicircle. He stood closest to the hovering sphere that the once placid Archive had become. He stood in silence watching a ripple of color play across the basalt around him before he turned to face the assembled dignitaries.

"Veth Rasa made a mistake this evening," he began. He looked back towards the Archive for just a moment. "I will do what I can to help him repair the damage, but I promise nothing. Lunarsa is notoriously short tempered, and I believe precious little but the Incarna or the Avatar could repair the full brunt of her wrath in the spirit world. He should have been paying more attention."

I gaped along with everyone else in the room. My mouth was working before my brain. "That was the... the moon?"

"Oh yes," Haiyahi said in a conversational tone. He might have been talking about the weather. "At any rate, she gave me some insight into what had happened earlier this day, and gave me the information that you will need to pass on to your subordinates. As of noon today, the Archive has entered its standby configuration. I have it on good authority this has not happened in over forty thousand years. The last to observe this was recorded just before the rise of Mouretsu to Incarna Ascendancy. This means we have precious little information on what exactly is happening, or what the Archive will behave like once the Incarna has reached his full power."

"Thus far, the system seems stable, and we can retrieve information from the core. However, it seems to be retaining a tremendous amount of resources for itself, and whatever it is doing makes the going harder. Do not attempt to pull out any information by yourself, only in teams and with full protective rituals. Less than that and it will consume you. It almost consumed me when I made a simple inquiry this afternoon."

"So the Archive is essentially useless to us for the duration," mother said in a flat voice. I couldn't blame her this time. The difficulty of getting an entire team here at once and putting up the rituals was obscene. It would take more people than were in the room now for the meeting.

"Essentially," Haiyahi said with a cheerful nod. "The good news is that the Incarna has graciously chosen not to wipe the minds of anyone who uses his private library."

"This was always the purview of our people," one man argued. I couldn't see his face but I imagine he was as surprised as I was.

"No," Haiyahi said. He shook his head. "The Archive was put into our trust until the next Incarna manifested. It has been a long time since any have come this far, and frankly far too much has been forgotten about the process. While he is alive, we may _never _be able to use the Archive again. His mere thoughts might be amplified a thousand times by its structure. We don't know what's going on and even those powerful entities we _can_ reach who may know aren't speaking. Even the Exile Koh says he knows not the process."

"You have spoken with The Exile," a voice called out. I would have recognized Jai Roh's booming bass anywhere. Haiyahi sighed.

"Yes, I have spoken with the Stealer of Faces," he said quietly. "He laughed me out of his sanctum and told me to ask the Incarna himself."

"Can we locate him?" mother asked. "Can we follow the signal back to his position?"

"Perhaps," Haiyahi said.

"Not if he desires that you don't. That fate is his alone to decide, and he does not trust the People," A young man said. I turned to see a figure dressed as a simple peasant with a longbow on his back and a conical farmer's hat upon his head kneeling just to the side of the sphere, well away from the gathering proper. His sense tendrils flared behind him in a significant mane, but it was his eyes that caught you. Unlike the eyes of everyone else in the Archive, they were a deep violet and his pupils were the sidelong hourglass shape of the symbol for infinity. His voice was hard and scratchy, as if he didn't use it often. "Nor do I."

"Who are you?" mother prompted as she whirled on the figure.

"The Chooser of the Slain," he said with a deep frown. "A duty I neither asked for nor desired, but keep just the same."

A month ago I would have said that it couldn't be. The Chooser of the Slain was a bogeyman, a legend. The stories said that once in a generation, a Gel Hassad was chosen by the Gods to watch over the ending and severing of the strands of fate. All Gel Hassad could learn to wield the power of prophecy to some extent. The prophecy was true and solid, even if the interpretations were usually pretty vague. Only the Chooser of the Slain could simply destroy fate itself, unmake destinies. He was the only force in the universe, so it was said, that could deny Inevitability, one of the great gods of our people, and only because Fate gave him his gift. Recent legends had him spotted several times in the Earth kingdom, particularly in Ba Sing Se since the fall. As I could care less about rumor, I didn't know much more than that.

Everyone knew someone who knew someone that had met him or her. However, there wasn't a single person that I'd ever met who had claimed to meet him face to face. Yet here he was. I would have scoffed, if I hadn't just seen the Goddess of the Moon drive a man into utter madness with a dismissive backhand pimp slap. Gods help us all, but I was starting to really loose my cynicism. You can only be confronted with the impossible so many times before you simply come to accept it.

From the fearful muttering in the Archive, I may have been the only one who'd been exposed to sufficient amounts of worldview shattering in the last few months. Everyone else save for old man Haiyahi and mother seemed to be terrified of him.

"You serve the resistance of Ba Sing Se," an older voice croaked in outraged recognition. I corrected my previous statement; they were either terrified or pissed. "You stand against my clan."

Ah, it was Yelem Ye'ghan himself. His clan were probably the most visible backers of Fire Nation hegemony and the old bastard was both wealthy and powerful among the People. Too bad the Chooser looked completely unimpressed.

"I go where death goes Ye'ghan," the man said. "And your archers have walked into the place where death walks strongest."

He looked straight at me. "I have a message for you all. Murder will come to Ba Sing Se, for the host of the Old Ones and for the host of Man. I care not. My duty is to bring an end, and I shall. Your time is ending Ye'ghan. Take care you choose your side carefully in the coming days. The order of things has shifted. Gods and monsters stir in their sleep and even Fate itself is twisted tight like a bowstring."

His smile became dark and violet light erupted from his gloved hands. "I haven't felt this way since the Avatar found me the first time. It will be... glorious. I come to warn you; if you value your life, avoid the City of Earth. Do not hunt the Incarna. He will come to us in due time. We have been patient all these years. A few weeks mean nothing."

Turning on his heel, the odd looking Gel Hassad hopped out of the Archive. The room watched him go in almost comical silence. Haiyahi cleared his throat a long minute after the Chooser was gone. "I believe the Chooser has spoken wisely. Perhaps it is best to leave the Incarna be for the time being. I am quite sure that he is in good health, and among the living, else the Archive would have reverted."

I figured that was fairly sound. I also figured the Moon... Gods that sounded strange- had given him some more information that the old man wasn't telling, and I began to wonder exactly why the Moon had tolerated my accidental presence when she'd broken the mind of the other poor fool.

"So we do nothing while this situation spins out of control?" mother prompted.

"I am following the forty second dao," Haiyahi said with a grin. "I do nothing. Sometimes that is best."

"Perhaps it is best for old fools who have lost perspective," mother spat. She looked as if she'd heard that saying somewhere before, and I mildly wondered who could tick off the power behind the New Ozai government so much. Maybe we should compare techniques. There were an awful lot of murmurs supporting her unusually harsh words.

"Have I then?" Haiyahi asked rhetorically. "Well, perhaps, but you cannot be rid of me so easily for now. By the time you've gotten rid of me, this will have resolved one way or another. It isn't worth your time Miyun. Leave it be."

More grumbles followed this, but no one could really argue with him. He had been the master of the Archive for more years than I'd been alive by a factor of four. He was nearly two hundred years old and only just past the prime of his health, and his mind was as sharp as ever. This would cost him political capital that was certain. However, I wondered what he knew or suspected that caused him to think this waiting game was wise.

"Now if that is all," Haiyahi said. "I must be off. I have appointments in Ba Sing Se that would be most unfortunate for me to miss."

"This conclave was solely about not using the Archive?" Jai Roh asked in confusion. Haiyahi raised an eyebrow.

"Whatever makes you think that _I_ was the one who called this meeting?" he asked in an amused tone.

"But the divine seal!" Ye'ghan interjected. "The serpent brought the news with the divine seal."

"It is true that I have one of the four seals, given to me in trust as it has been passed down the line from one keeper to the next," Haiyahi admitted with a smile. "However, I only have one of the four. I was as surprised as all of you. I thought simply leaving a few warning glyphs would suffice."

"Then who called us here?" mother asked with narrowed eyes.

"The Chooser," I whispered. The attention of the conclave bore down on me at my words. I spoke louder, trying my hardest to sound bored and apathetic to hide my sense of impending doom. "It's obvious. Why else would a bogeyman just show up here? Because he was in the area? Come on."

"I believe young Mai to be correct," Haiyahi said with a small laugh. "It would match my own suspicions. So there you have it. Ba Sing Se will become a deathtrap. Now is there anything else we need to discuss?"

I then realized that Haiyahi used his soothing tone of voice like a weapon. By the time the crowd had registered exactly what he'd said to them, he let out a small sigh and clapped his hands together. The calm tone with which he discussed potential genocide threw them off so much they didn't bother to speak up until it was too late.

"Very well then," he said. "Thus I formally dissolve this conclave. You are free to go."

_Stay_, a voice whispered in my head. I jerked around, my sense tendrils flying about my head as I tried to narrow down the source, but everyone except Haiyahi seemed to be leaving as quickly as they could. People like my mother had things to do, and the rest were simply too creeped out to want to spend time in the now new and improved stranger Archive. My mother gave me one last look before she disappeared down the tunnels. When all the others were gone, Haiyahi turned to me.

"You will come to Ba Sing Se, will you not?" he asked. I nodded at him.

"Soon my ship will reach the city," I answered quietly. What game are you playing old man?

"Excellent," Haiyahi said. He gave me a very long hard look. "Meet me in the Lotus Garden, a Pai Sho parlor in the middle ring. I fear we may have much to discuss by the time you arrive."

Then he simply faded away, leaving me alone with the polychrome silver ball and the forest of mismatched pillars that had once been a lake and sloping cavern. I turned and walked away. Fine, if they want to play games, I can play games too. I flexed my fist. Hell was coming to Ba Sing Se; and now I was fairly certain that it wasn't just coming with the Fire Nation. Something was waiting for us there, and no matter what it was, I had to be ready.

I snapped awake to see Zuko sitting in a chair not far from my bunk. He had a distant look in his eyes as he stared out of the nearby porthole, but he looked directly at me when I sat up.

"What is it?" I asked. He shook his head with a smirk.

"You ever wonder if you sometimes see something that shouldn't be there?" he asked. I blinked. I wondered where he was going with this.

"Sometimes," I allowed. He closed his eyes.

"Have you ever seen someone who seemed to be in more than one place at once?"

"What?" I asked. I was winning the intelligence award for the day at this rate; and he was winning the cryptic one. Talk about a reversal.

"Back in Ba Sing Se, the first time," he said in a casual tone. "I had a nightmare when I was sick, very sick. There was something that I had to do, a choice I had to make. It was very difficult, and I didn't really understand it then. I'm not sure I understand it now."

I listened with rapt attention as my fists balled in my silk sheets. He continued on, looking away from me. "When I woke up from that dream... I guess I started noticing things I hadn't before. Little flashes out of the corner of my eye. Uncle said that sometimes when someone gets stressed out too much or sees something they shouldn't, they learn to see what others won't. Things like spirits."

Fuck.

"Earlier today I felt that... thing that was moving around. I've felt itchy ever since we started sailing over the Center Sea. I also thought it was very strange when I suddenly saw someone who looked almost like you running down the hallway," he said, looking back at me. Thank Agni he wasn't angry, but he did look concerned. "Of course when I checked, you were still here. I don't want to sound crazy, but you didn't get up or anything did you?"

I wanted to lie, gods I did, but I couldn't. It was like that part of my brain was on vacation. I shook my head numbly. Zuko let out a deep breath. "I just hope I'm not going crazy."

"I think I would have noticed," I said dryly, trying to change the subject.

"This felt pretty crazy," Zuko commented.

"This is nothing," I responded with a small smile. "I have an uncle who collects small plush toys. You know, the one who runs the prison? He has to be crazy to surround himself with colors that bright all the time."

Zuko gave a snorting laugh, and I got out of the bed and wrapped my arms around him from behind. "Maybe you just couldn't get my sexiness out of your mind?"

"I never get your sexiness out of my mind," he replied deadpan. "Trust me, I know the difference. You wear less clothes in my daydreams."

Cute; Zuko couldn't stop undressing me with his mind, even when I wasn't around. How utterly manly of him. "Do I now?"

"I thought you wanted me to be honest?" Zuko asked with an arched eyebrow. I smiled a little.

"Well it does give me stunning insight into how your mind works," I said, putting a finger to my lip. "It has the downside of making you sound like a pig."

"All men are pigs," Zuko said with a dismissive wave. "At least I'm honest."

I let that one go. Sleeping dragons should be left to lie. "Fine then. I will do you a favor and present you with an opportunity to see me with less clothing as a reward. Does that suit you Prince Zuko?"

"I find it acceptable," he said after a moment of serious thought. After that, the afternoon went by with remarkable smoothness. I figured mid afternoon make out sessions would vastly improve the temper and intensity of Fire Nation military commands. Maybe Azula should have tried it more often; she could use a little mellowing.

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Co-Authors Note: _I rarely respond to reviewers directly but our friend Bluetiger asked some good questions that deserved an answer._

_"There were a few concepts that I had trouble digesting though. I kinda thought that with Aang locked out of the Avatar state, he was effectively separated from the power and knowledge of his past lives, so I sorta struggled with the idea that Yasuragi could assert control over Aang in the way that she did."_

_Answer: We would have thought so too, except that Roku talks to him very directly in the Third Season episode "Avatar and the Firelord". Hence she could manifest but was only limited to Aang and not able to use the full might of the Avatar State. _

_"The way I had read the previous chapters, I had assumed that the Gel Hassad were the opposites of the benders, so I would have thought that the presence of their bloodline in a benders ancestry, would have weakened them, rather than making them stronger."_

_Answer: Ah... well ancestry is funny. Also Toph is much like the Avatar in that she draws her power from something beyond the scope of normal benders. To make a reference that you might get, they are much like a Solar Exalted compared to a Dragon Blooded. In less specific terms, Toph has an additional power source given to her by the Gods. She is another level of entity entirely. Just like Katara is and Giyatsu was. They're super people. The Gods really do love them._

_"Lastly, if Yasuragi has been busy executing every Incarna that comes along, I guess she got lucky that its been over 200 years since the last one came along, what with Aang spending half that time frozen an iceberg, lol."_

_Answer: The Incara Spirit is not quite the same as the Avatar Spirit. For one thing the Incarna Spirit has a consciousness all its own, it can think and plan to some degreee. However it isn't perfect. Lying low the way it did was a defense mechanism. However, it is subject to a degree of fateful manipulation... and as you'll see later It resents this a little._

_-Richard._

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(Knight: See, we are everywhere. The top of the page, the bottom of the page, behind you right now.)

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_Remember to check out the two new Forums; _**_The Jenkotsu, the Henkotsu_ _and the Ger-ghanim; who are they?_**_ and **The Incarna.**_

Jade Knight - Richard Caine - Kitty

**Please Remember to Review**


	14. Of Legends and Iron Men

Disclaimer**: **We own nothing... but we are forming our legion... we will conquer, and we _will_ own.

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_Jade's Authors Note: well hello! as you can see we are keeping up with the quick updates... but there might be a slight delay on 15.. seeing as 15 and 16 are both mine and the last two before Richard, gets his blood on. Let me jsut say that he's been a little quiet lately for a reason, and it will be a heart stopping moment._

and it it almost certain that** chapter 17**... the next Richard chapter will be the first **"M" rated**. Alert us or turn up your rating systems (if age allowed; as i don't want to be deleted) the story is jsut about to explode and you'll hate yourself if you miss it!

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_Beta Note: Hey everyone! I hope you're as excited as I was to read this chapter. I don't think I missed anything grammar-wise, but if you spot anything please let me know! Thanks._

_Enjoy!_

_Kitty_

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**Sokka: Master of the Black Sword**

Author: The Jade Knight

Co-Author: Richard Caine

Beta: Kitty (A.K.A. kathykatinahat)

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**-The Resistance Saga-**

**Chapter 14**

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The Story of Arckon

Part 1: Of Legends and Iron Men

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_-8 hours ago_

My name is Arckon Hagane, the ninth of the great Hagane clan, a very old and respected Earth Bending clan. Most people just call me Arc; it's less confusing seeing as I'm the ninth guy to have the name. Helps keep the books straight.

I have lived seventeen years, but sometimes it feels like a hundred; sometimes it's hard to believe that only two years ago I was champion of Earth Rumble tournaments and happily running from the fan-girls. It was also hard to believe that I was once what some people could call 'dashing and handsome' or a 'heart throb.' I almost smiled as I remember how a good friend of mine – who had a thing for nick names – used to call me 'Pretty Boy' just to get under my skin. But that all ended with the death of my father.

My family is old – ancient really, going back thousands of years. And of all the things we are known for, our greatest achievements, our most important and sacred duty is an absolute secret; no one knows. Well, thats kind of a lie. They know _of _the secret, they just don't know whose secret it is; and that's the way it has to stay, by order of the Avatar himself.

In each generation, there is trained one, and _only _one elite warrior. A man or woman who can stand as a singular army. Someone who will lay down our lives to hold back the darkness when the Avatar is weakened, or when he calls upon us. The Hagane is the family clan of the Earthen Scroll, and it is our sworn duty to stand behind the Avatar against the darkest hearts of the world.

My father was the last generation's Earth Jenkotsu, and I am the next in a line tracing all the way back to the forgotten war. My good fist clenched over the small bit of black fabric I held. The forgotten war, known in its time as the Great War. The war that wiped out an entire race. We don't really know too much about what went on in that war, as much of the information has been destroyed by weak minded fools fearing a repetition of those bloody battles. Idiots, the lot of them.

Everything the Hagane clan does know about the War is kept in a scroll, one of four identical scrolls, actually. Each is passed down from one generation to another in the four chosen bender clans. Inside each scroll are hundreds of pages, some ancient, and some newer, but all containing forbidden or forgotten information. I slowly reached inside my loose shirt and pulled out the Earthen Scroll entrusted to my clan; entrusted to me.

Inside each scroll there are handwritten pages, each added with every generation. On these pages are many things, both wondrous and terrifying. Some of the things mentioned there would benefit the future of mankind when released at the right time; and other things written here would corrupt and drive the world to destroy itself just to keeps its secrets. The oldest of these pages tell of the war in sketchy terms. Too many pages were lost to the ravages of time even though we tried our hardest to maintain and even recopy the old scrips. Aside from the retelling of the war there are also countless pages containing the teachings of the Earth. Some of the techniques are more twisted and horrid than anything that should ever touch the light of the sun. At first I had been repulsed by the thought of even looking at those, but then I noticed the message carved into the inside of the stone scroll.

_"When fighting the vilest monsters of this world, one must sometimes embrace the monstrosity within thy self."_

I read every word after that, knowing that if my ancestors felt the need to develop these horrendous techniques then they must have been dealing with beasts a hundred times worse than what I could imagine. And I was right.

I felt a dull ache set into my right shoulder and shoot down to where my elbow once was. 'Phantom pains' the doctors called it. I grasped my shoulder where my right arm had once been, feeling the knotted scarring and long-healed torn muscles beneath my fingers and tried to will away the pain.

I stared deep into the mirror before me, trying to convince my unconscious mind that the arm that thought it was suffering damage was a year and a half gone. Nothing except the slow dripping of the taps in the bathroom filled my ears as I stood there, the pain slowly fading. I grimaced as the pain came in one last painful stab; a reminder of the agonizingly long minutes in which my arm exploded from the inside, one bloody painful inch after another until it was all gone. Then she moved to my face. I could still hear the crack of bone, the wet splash of my blood on the cold stone floor and the echoing sounds of my screams. I could even still taste the coppery blood as it had flooded my mouth.

I needed to get moving soon. Using my left hand I carefully tied the black patch over the empty eye socket. Looking back into the mirror I held my face back once more. A mismatched pair of eyes stared back at me; one a pale blue and the other a black patch amidst the scarring that went from my hairline down to the edge of my jaw, twisting my mouth up into a permanent sadistic half-smile. That black patch had become my new face. No one here even knew what I looked like before, or who I really was now. They all knew me either as the as the cripple that had risen to the rank of general along side the mighty Iron Titan, provided the resistance with some valuable information and planned most of our missions to success. Or the grim avenger that lead the attacks from the front lines, fighting through the opposition along side the rest of the freedom fighters. Always swooping in at the worst moment to pull everyone back before everything went to hell. Most everyone thought we were two separate people, but there had been a select few that had connected us; and they were telling no one. I made sure of it.

I was never good with keeping secrets until I got my new look. Now, I didn't think most average people even suspected that I was their celebrated Iron Titan. All the guys want to have a drink with me after the mission when I'm still in the armour and all the girls want to talk to me; to bring me out of my shell or something overly romanticized like that. They know nothing.

Now -as opposed to when I was young and stupid- I'm very good at keeping secrets, at keeping the calm head that I was always trained to. I do not let emotions get in my way anymore. Yes, I still have friends and allies of a sort. I still trust people to have my back. But now I am well-prepared for what I have to do when they turn on me.

I absently ran my fingers over the carved white marble of the scroll. Something was coming-I could feel it. Every Jenkotsu was trained to listen to themselves. Trained to gain a sixth sense sensitive to the powers of the Gel-Hassad, to the Void as _they_ called it. And there had been a constant prickling at the back of my next for about five days now. I didn't know what it meant. Usually I got a very strong and undeniable lock on something, or nothing at all. When they were hiding their true forms, contact, even something as small as a brushing of shoulders was needed for me to feel the Void within them. But now, it was like there was a disturbance, a great disturbance. Nothing I could pin down, but something powerful and dangerous was definitely coming.

I looked down at the Earthen Scroll, running my fingers over the carvings on the aged marble. I rolled it over, gazing at the history I had memorized years ago. The carvings on the outside depicted the last fight of the Great War. I ran a finger over the fleet of ships, carrying benders from all four nations to that last slaughter. I trailed down to the next frame, looking down emotionlessly at the army assembled on the river bank, waiting for the bender fleet to land. At the head of the army a single man stood out, his body meticulously carved using the verbal memories of the few that survived that day. Although I believe the artist had a slightly biased view of him; I have never before seen a Gel-Hassad without their seeming with such an open look of hate and rage on their face.

The next carving was of the battle itself. This side of my scroll had been badly damaged centuries ago. So much of the detail had been lost. But one could still see the fighters frozen in time, the worn stone making it look as though they fought within a deathly fog. And the very last carving was the most deeply striking. It was a near perfect rendition of two bodies; one Gel-Hassad and one human, each clad in totally destroyed armour. Lying dead, next to one another.

"The life of the Jenkotsu is a hard one," my father once told me. "_We_ are Jenkotsu. I know you have always been told that any one of your cousins could be chosen by the spark of the earth. But I believe it has chosen you. It is because of this belief that I am going to begin teaching you how to think like a Jenkotsu. For instance; as Jenkotsu we are expected to be the Avatar's generals, to direct and lead the forces that ally behind him."

He leaned in close, his eyes boring deeply into my own. I could not help but hang on his every carefully-chosen word. "As a general you will be expected to lead people, sometimes even to their deaths. This is a fact of the life you were born to, and you must bear this burden just as the Avatar must bear the world. But there is both a right way and a wrong way to bear this great weight. There are many ways for you to be corrupted and turned against those you have a responsibility to. You will see many temptations and distractions to turn you from your path, but the greatest weakness is within you.

"Self-doubt will destroy you if you let it. Never take a step in haste, but also never hesitate to do what you must. You must be smart enough to lead thousands, but humble enough to know when to ask for the help of advisors. But most importantly you must be sure of every move you make. If you doubt yourself, even for a moment you become your own worst enemy. Plans will crumble around you and soldiers will die at your feet."

He leaned back in the chair, and it squeaked just like always. He looked at nothing over my head, gathering himself again. Preparing himself to take a sure step, without hesitation. He turned his gaze back at me. "I know this is a lot to take in for someone so young, but you must be prepared for the worst."

He sighed deeply, looking older then I had ever seen him before. "Son, you know that the Avatar vanished nearly a hundred years ago now. You have always been told that he will be returning soon, that he is eternal and will forever be reborn. But there is a way for the chain of the Avatar to be broken."

I remembered being stunned into absolute silence when I had first heard this. It was like a piece of the world had fallen out from under me. "I can see you are very confused, but know that I am telling the truth. It is an unwanted truth that few know, even fewer can come to terms with; but you must understand this. This is one of the reasons why the Jenkotsu were created-to stand when the Avatar has fallen, to be there when he cannot. As much as it saddens me to say this, I think he may have finally left this world forever. Now more then ever you must grow strong. A single weak link among the four fists could be all that the dark-hearted need to cover the world in a lasting black.

"You must become a strong warrior and an even better leader. And the most important thing to know about being a leader, the Avatar's fists' more so than any other, is to know sacrifice. But I do not mean self-sacrifice, that you already know. What you need to know is how to sacrifice others. Now, I know that sounds cold, but sacrifice is a necessity of war. Life is a precious thing that should never be wasted, but sometimes it needs to be sacrificed to gain something. There is a noble sacrifice to gain something vitally needed, and then there is a meaningless sacrifice. Before every battle ask yourself; the soldiers following you, are their lives being spent to bring about a better tomorrow, or are they being wasted? Lives must be spent in war, that is what makes it an ugly thing that should be avoided at all routes. But when war does come... when it is unavoidable... make every lost life count. Let _no one_ die in vain. Waste not a single one."

My father was a great man, and I learned many things from him in the short time we had together. I was drawn out of my thoughts knowing what needed to be done. _Take every step without haste or hesitation. _

My pale blue eye met its counterpart in the glass and hardened. My loose brown hair was pulled back into a tight tail, keeping it out of my eye sight should I need to fight; revealing my mutilated face for all to fear. The scarring left me without any hair on the right side of my face and turned the twisted skin to a sickly white. Like I said, fearsome. I didn't want to be feared, but it sometimes had its uses. And it was kind of unavoidable. After all, one does not get along easily with half a man. My left fist clenched tightly at my side, the brown fingerless leather glove creaking loudly in the echoing space of the bathroom. My 'issued' loose earthy colored clothes were plain aside from the blue outlines on all of the seams. They were also no protection in a fight, but I had my armour for that. I smiled at myself in the mirror, curling up the healthy side of my mouth into a likeness of the scarred side, creating a very intimidating look.

"Let's go old man, they ain't going to wait for you forever," I said to myself. I pushed away from the water basin, turned and left the place of my reminiscing. I was back in the main room of my quarters, if you could call it that. The resistance had gotten a few good contacts recently and one of them had the deed to a big old hotel that had gone out of business a few months back. Now it was ours for as long as we could keep it secret or Red May got another of her feelings and moved us out of here. She had done so a few times already with absolutely no warning. We were just told each time to be out of the building in ten minutes. I think everyone would have been a lot more upset with that if she hadn't been right every time.

Ba Sing Se was a huge place; most who'd never been to it assumed it was just a huge city. However, it was really a country unto itself. The tram system the Earth King had installed centuries ago made transportation much simpler, but it was still an enormous area. In addition to the Great City, there were also several 'minor' towns that would qualify as cities in any other land, including the Fire Nation itself.

Shong Te was one such city, the Gate of the South. It was where merchants flowed into Ba Sing Se, bringing their goods to trade with the Dai Li 'approved' merchants in a different era. It was hard to pretend that the city was not in a state of siege if the merchants could simply say so and point to the difficulties that they had. People tend to believe that.

The Dai Li solution to this was as intelligent as it was ruthless. These 'border towns' were contained markets that isolated the merchants from the people of the city; here the merchants traded with those merchants who were screened by the Dai Li for their loyalty and their ability to keep their mouth shut. Thus, goods continued to flow, at a higher price of course, but information did not. Those who lived here could not ever journey into the city itself. They were second-class citizens.

That being said, they still had managed all right, until the fall of the city itself. None could now deny that the city was at war, however, and with that the fortunes of Shong Te had declined as trade withered and died. The Sand Benders and Beetle Men who once traded with the great city now stayed in their desert, watching from afar. The lack of trade was crumbling the city. Soon it would be empty; but for now it had minimal Fire Nation presence and enough abandoned structures to suit Red May's needs. Soon we would be back in the city; but for now we waited.

Just than a knock came at the door. I made my way over to the door and slowly opened it, making sure to keep the door between me and the person on the other side. I had already tensing for a fight should the wrong sort be on the other side. But I relaxed when I recognized the messenger I had rescued from a patrol a week ago.

"Yes?" I asked slowly

The messenger was still breathing a little heavily, and from the sweat on the collar of his shirt I could tell that he had been running for a while now. "Red May wants to speak with you."

As he spoke he focused -like most people- to a spot just over my left shoulder somewhere around my ear. It was the furthest one could look away from my scarred face while still appearing to hold a respectful eye contact. I didn't blame them.

"I understand," I said simply. He nodded once before turning and jogging off, hurrying to his next assignment. I stepped out into the hall and closed my door quietly behind me. I kept a wary eye on the man in the chair three doors down from me as I gave the door knob a little twist, fusing the metal in the locking bolt. No one had ever tried to break into my room yet, and I intended to keep it that way. I never knew if my 'old friend' or her associates would come looking for the Earthen Scroll. Of course I kept it on me at all times, but they didn't need to know that.

I made it to the basement of the hotel in good time. I pushed open the fire exit having taken the stairs and passing up the elevator. Sure we might be able to spare an Earth Bender to operate it, but the sounds of an elevator operating in an abandoned hotel would appear too suspicious.

I crossed the large space, weaving my way through tables covered in plans and intelligence reports. I didn't have to step around too many people; most just took one look at me and either just stepped aside or threw in a quick salute before retreating. I supposed the room was spacious enough, covering the entire perimeter of the hotel, bisected by a strengthening wall or pillar here and there. Scurrying around were thirty odd people, none of them combatants, moving papers from one desk to another. I planned, I fought, but I could never do this type of work. Sure, it was vital, even I agreed on that. But I always had to feel like I was improving the situation- I could never just monitor it.

I finally made it to the other side of the room and to the door that lead to Red's 'back office'. I knocked twice in quick succession and was just able to pick up the sound of a bow string tightening. The door opened a second later, revealing a hook-sword and a face that looked me over quickly before stepping back to grant me admittance. No one could impersonate me, so most of the security measures were for not. All that was really needed was to make sure the scars were real and I got in everywhere with my level nine clearance.

I nodded once to Smellerbee. I had no idea what the girl's real name was, and she didn't want to share. I could relate. "Song?" I asked her, keeping with our little game.

"Nope," she replied with a small smile. This had been going on for almost as long as we had been acquainted. Every time I met her, whether it be in the mess hall or even in a meeting such as this, I would take another guess at her real name. She said that she would tell me when I finally got it, but I didn't know. She might just keep me guessing forever. But it didn't matter. She was one of only three people I still called a friend, and if she wanted to keep her name a secret, so be it.

Not a lot of people dared to play these kinds of games with Bee, they were a little afraid it might be seen as flirting. There was never anything more to our little games then a little goodhearted fun and we both knew it. But I suppose having a boyfriend that could pin a fly to a bullseye at a thousand yards put a little fear in most men. The fact that he was of the Gel-Hassad race probably didn't make it any easier on those that knew either.

I nodded my respects to the other guard in the room and he returned it just as he was putting the arrow he had drawn against me back into his quiver. Longshot, also another name-mystery. When I had asked him about it he said that his people had turned their backs on him for who he was, stripping him of everything, even his name. I understood this. But I still ask him regularly what Bee calls him in private. If Longshot were capable of blushing I'm sure he would look like a forest fire every time; my own opinion was that his capacity for such things must have been removed at birth. I had yet to get an answer from him.

Longshot was the second person I considered a friend. Yes, he was a Gel-Hassad, but my mission was not to wipe out the race; it was to return balance to the world. And unlike most of his people Longshot seemed to want the same thing; thus we were also allies.

I snapped to attention in front of Red. She was not my commander, that title belonged to only one. But I was only a general, and a general without a flag to fight under is lost. So until the moment the Avatar called upon me, or Red May turned against the balance of the world I would hold her name as my flag. Fighting the darkness of the world in the last fallen city.

"Arckon, good. We have matters to discuss," said Red smoothly, leaning forward in her wing-backed chair. A third name mystery, but one I had solved in secret months ago. I would not be blinded by trust ever again. I will always be watching, especially my comrades.

"Yes?" I asked, focusing on her.

"It seems that, with the help of The Second Grandmaster of the White Lotus organization, and Longshot have managed to acquire the alliance of the Green Dagger Special Forces."

I was very surprised at our accomplishment, and rightly so. This was a very big attainment. The Green Dagger battalion was the elite of the elite in the Earth Kingdom's military. They were a division made up of only non-benders, and they could defeat a force twice their size, benders or not. The Green Daggers had achieved their name through the many secret repressions that were orchestrated behind the King's back. The reports stated that the Green Daggers, then the Ninth Fighting Squad, had been on their way back to Ba Sing Se, returning from a mission, when they had stopped for the night at a small town. Sometime in the night a betrayer among them gathered up all of their weapons and ran.

The next morning the betrayer had brought back a Fire Nation battle group three hundred strong. The Green Daggers were outnumbered six to one, not to mention they were without any means to fight; at least that was what the betrayer thought. The night before, when he had been gathering up weapons he had missed the single crate of jade hilted daggers the weapon smith had planned on selling off that morning. So armed with six inch daggers the Ninth Fighting Squad readied themselves, thinking that if they were going to hell they were going to take as many of the Fire Nation's troops with them as they could; if just to leave one less man in the world to threaten their city or families. And so they marched out the front gates of that small town; fifty men against three hundred. They faced death with a grin and a dagger, and charged.

Outnumbered six to one, and armed with only daggers, the enemy forces gravely underestimated them. With the surprise from both the frontal assault and their choice of weaponry the Ninth Fighting force managed to battle their enemies into a full retreat while only losing thirteen of their own.

When they returned to the city, they could not receive medals or parades to mark their impossible accomplishment as the war was to be kept a complete secret. So the only recognition the masters of the war bestowed upon them was the renaming of their battalion. A little short, yes; but they never complained. And to this day a green dagger had become part of the uniform for the Green Dagger Special Forces.

"This is very good news," I said honestly, a small smile gracing my face for a moment. It said something that my two friends mirrored my twisted smile, while Red May smiled that brilliant smile as she always did. The one that had no soul.

"Indeed it is," she said. "I will have you introduced as soon as possible so that we can integrate them into the resistance."

I nodded my agreement. This could mean many more successful raids and rescues. Already, plans utilizing the Green Daggers filled my head.

"Also, the Avatar's flying bison was seen flying over the desert four hours ago. It was heading in our direction and, if they hold their course and speed, should be arriving at the gates of the city in a few hours." Red May said all of this in a perfectly reasonable tone of voice, not as though she was talking about the return of the Avatar to Ba Sing Se. I quickly snapped my eye back to her face, tempering my face back to cool indifference. I didn't trust Jin, she was too cold, too calculating. Sometimes I even questioned her humanity with some of her orders and acts, and now all of that cold analysis was directed at me. She was testing me for something, trying to discover something by revealing this to me face to face. But I think I kept anything from my face. It was relatively easy not to let your emotions and thoughts show on your face when over half of it was immobile.

"I see," I replied after a long pause. "And what do you plan on doing about this newest development?"

"I intend to see the Avatar into the resistance movement and, with his help, the fall of the Fire Nation inside the walls as soon as possible." She spoke casually, even as her eyes were still locked on me, reading me. I felt like a bug on a microscope being scrutinized.

Several more moments past pregnantly, with no movement from anyone. Finally Red seemed to find what she was looking for and broke the stand off. "I want you to find the Avatar as soon as possible. There is no doubt that he will find a way to secret his small force into the city. Bring them here. We will then work with the Avatar to find the best course of action to bring the Fire Nation down."

"His name is Aang," I said carefully.

"I know," was all the reply I got. I didn't like it. There was something about the way she only referred to him as 'the Avatar' that bothered me. It was like, she was speaking about ... something other than a human being. A living god, yes. But a human like most of us, none the less.

"Now Arckon, there is also the matter of the Fire Nation reinforcements that are on the way-" she was interrupted when another knock came at the door. Again I heard the twang of a bow string and the scrap of metal as Red's two guards readied against a possible assassination attempt from within our own ranks.

It has happened five times in the last month alone.

I turned to the door and just touched my armour with the edges of my senses, readying it should I need it. But when Bee opened the door, checked a face and stepped back we all calmed back down. She was well known to us.

She walked into the room slightly hunched over, wearing layers of clothing to mask her fit physique as one belonging to an old woman. Once the door closed she removed the hood from her face and stood proudly before Red. She wore the disguise as a precaution against any moles we might still have among our forces. As a spy she was useless if the enemy knew her face.

She had joined the resistance months ago, soon after the fall. Back then Red May was just beginning to build her resistance and was in dire need of hands. And where better to get willing freedom fighters then in a prisoner caravan headed to the Boiling Rock?

Suki saluted to both Red and myself before slipping into an easier stance, but I saw something in it. She was worried about something. "I have the latest intelligence reports on the Fire Nation's moments."

"Good," said Red. She was a hard one to read, but she also seemed to pick up on Suki's tensions. "Is there anything vital to report, or can it wait until after my meeting with Arckon."

"No, it's about the reinforcements that are coming," Suki said. "Princess Azula knows me."

"Oh?" asked Red, quirking an eyebrow in interest. "Anything we can use?"

"No, she will most likely have me killed on sight."

"I see," Red said pensively. Suki looked over in my direction and I tried to give her an encouraging smile. With my face all messed up it probably didn't look too good, but she seemed to have gotten the meaning and allowed one side of her mouth perk up.

"It seems that we will have to extract you before they arrive," said Red. "Our best guess is that they will arrive in approximately four days, maybe as much as five. We will have an extraction plan made up by the end of the day and at the first sighting of anything that looks like an airship you will be pulled out. But until then you will continue with your assignments to the best of your ability."

"Yes ma'am," Suki said sharply with a final salute. She seemed relived and a little more apprehensive with what Red May said, but she kept it together like any good soldier. As she passed I nodded to her once. We couldn't have bad morale poisoning the troops.

And then suddenly my head was filled with light and flaming pain.

I know pain. I have been shot with arrows, had grenades go off in my face – dammit, I have even had my face actually explode from the inside before, but nothing could have prepared me for the feeling of my Void sense literally redlining. I clamped my head with my hands in some primal instinct to protect the pained area, but it was useless; my head was being burned from the inside and there was nothing I could do except fall to my knees and groan with pain. I live with pain everyday, it is nothing new to me; but this _was_ something new. The pain was so great that it didn't even occur to me to shut down my Void sense.

I felt small hands on my back and a voice next to me said something, but I couldn't make it out. The pain was my entire universe, filling my head completely; forcing all else out. But I have dealt with pain before, even of this magnitude. Slowly, in agonizing seconds, my mind became my own again as I adapted to the smoldering embers in my skull; finally managing to shut down my Void sense.

The world slammed back down around me and I opened my eye, trying to blink away the light that still dominated my vision.

"Arc, are you okay? Do you need to go to the infirmary?"

Bee? What was she asking me? I think it was something about being hurt, but my mind was so scrambled I couldn't even begin to make sense of it.

"I'm fine," I mumbled, every word like death to my throbbing head.

I needed focus.

I slowly began to even out my breathing, concentrating on the familiar sounds in the room, counting the seconds between breaths. Then I began to shut down my pain. Painkillers could do wonders sometimes, but there is only so much they could do. I had developed this back while I was recovering, when the deep, throbbing fire of my wounds became too much for the drugs. Shut down the parts of my mind that feel the pain, one at a time, until it was gone. Eventually – exactly how long I have no idea – the pain faded enough for me to be able to straighten up, although I had to have a hand on the wall for balance for the first few seconds.

"Arc?" asked Bee looking distressed.

"I'm alright now," I said through the numbness in my head. The pain was, thankfully, gone; but the technique I used left me feeling weak and a bit unsteady for a little while after.

"What was that?" Red asked, her face showing no concern for me.

"Something big is happening," I said, still trying to piece it together myself. "Something drawing a lot of power, more power than I have ever felt at once."

"Is it a threat?"

"I don't know," I said honestly. I had no idea what it was, what it could be.

"Arckon, I need to know what's going on," said Red May in that falsely friendly voice, looking at me from her chair with those damned unreadable green eyes. I pushed off of the wall and again took my own weight. Red knew I was something much more then anyone else. She didn't know exactly what, but she knew I could do things that were impossible for most. Many times in the past I had sensed something in the Void and it had led us to a victory or gained something valuable. This was not one of those times.

Whatever I had felt was powerful and angry, something that commanded more Void energy then any score of Gel-Hassad could contain without suffering a very messy death; violent and painful and all over the place. I was just about to tell Red to go screw herself when the entire Hotel almost jumped off of its foundations with the force of an ungodly detonation.

Red's desk toppled over, and would have crushed Suki if it wasn't for Longshot's quick reflexes. The tiled ceiling crumbled and fell down on top of us, throwing up a suffocating blanket of dust. I heard Bee gasp in pain right before something heavy landed on my own back, pinning me to the ground. This building was old when we got here, very unstable on its own, but whatever had brought it down on top of us had definitely shocked the entire city.

I bend a small column of stone from the floor to lift the chunk of concrete off of my back and got up, testing myself for any broken bones. Finding none I went inside of myself, just catching a glimpse of Longshot helping Bee up before I closed my eye. I very carefully opened my Void senses a fraction, weary of a repeat of the pain of a few moments ago.

Again I was almost slammed to my knees with the sheer force of the power I was feeling. It had grown in the few moments I had shut down. This was _very_ bad. I left my sense open slightly, keeping a mental eye on it while I tried to figure out what the fuck was going on.

Red May was still seated in her chair, observing the rest of us as we picked ourselves up. Damn, I don't even think any of the ceiling fell on her. It's times like this I wonder if she's what she seems. I had checked her for Void energy or a spark many times, but always come up with nothing. She was just unnaturally good at surviving.

I quickly looked over the others in the room. Suki seemed a little stunned, but otherwise alright. Bee seemed fine as well, her hook-sword in hand should she need to hurt someone for dropping a hotel on her. And Longshot; silent, sullen Longshot had the most cracked grin on his face I have ever seen. I had never seen this man smile, and now he looked like he was just handed a golden bow.

"He's waking up," Longshot said, never losing the grin. I quickly glanced around at the other people still picking themselves up. They all looked as mystified as myself at Longshot's words, so with a mental shrug I brushed them away and began to plan how to deal with this new gathering of power.

"Who's he?" asked Bee, and Longshot just smiled wider causing Bee's eyes to bug out. "_Him_!"

"He is fighting his nemesis," said Longshot. He almost seemed to be lost within himself, watching something.

"Shouldn't we go and help him?" asked Bee, looking almost panicked.

"There is no time," said Longshot. "He can only sustain his current power level for a further sixty seconds, not enough time for us to reach him. He must face his judgment alone."

"Who's waking up?" asked Red, ignoring the fact that Longshot never spoke this much. Again she got no answer. This was a new thing for Red, and she seemed to be taking it badly. "Withholding information could get people killed. I order you to disclose anything you know."

I drew a startled breath, not listening to what Red May was saying in the slightest. My entire being, body and soul, started to shake with barely controlled adrenaline and energy. I had never felt it before this instant, but I knew what it was immediately; just like any Jenkotsu would. A powerful pull that stretched out over my entire body, almost painfully, as though someone was calling out to my spark itself.

The Call of the Avatar. I was being summoned to a battle, _just outside the gates!_

Oh Kami, no! I locked eyes with Longshot for only a moment.

"The Incarna," I whispered, terrified by the very thought.

I turned and ran through the door leading back to the main basement, not even stopping as Red screamed at me to come back. I tore through the mess that was once our command center, jumping over downed tables and people, racing for the door that would lead me to the surface. I almost armoured up, but the extra weight would slow me down, and I needed to be there_ now_. I slammed through the fire exit door and bolted up the two flights of stairs that lead to the surface streets. In a matter of seconds I was running into the sunlight.

I fired out of the mouth of the lonely alleyway like a mad bull-rhino, using my Earthbending abilities to skate across the top of the beaten ground like any Waterbender would on a sheet of ice. I sliced around a corner as elegant as a Waterbending master, my shoes kicking up a dust devil as I skated faster and faster, tearing past dozens of surprised faces. I screamed for people to get out of my way and when they were too slow I brought a wall of earth up to push them aside, as gently as the situation would allow.

I was breathing hard and drawing closer to the outer wall when the first Fire Nation troops caught sight of me. They didn't recognize me as the Iron Titan, but they did see someone using a very advanced Earthbending technique; and Earthbending was forbidden inside the walls of Ba Sing Se if you weren't monitored by the Fire Nation. It was not even a challenge to outrun the foot patrols as I was already moving as fast as a horse in a full run. Too bad that's what I found when I rounded the next corner.

I could just see the bottom of the great wall coming into sight when the first chariots clattered up from behind me. Inch by inch the hissing and gasping salamanders crept closer to me on either side, bringing their fire-wielding riders within range. Now I had to evade fire balls as I poured on more speed, begging the gods to let me be get there in time.

I felt the next concussion coming through the earth a moment before it struck me, throwing the ground around like wild waves on the angry ocean. I stumbled and, if not for the mere seconds of warning, I would have gone down like the salamanders. Behind me I heard the sounds of splintered wood and the cried of pain as the two chariots slammed together and emerged from the smoke as a pile of firewood and benders. But I paid it little mind as the very air itself rippled with impossible powers and something that upset the nature of the universe itself.

I pressed harder, my body shrieking through the streets now, drawing ever closer to the great wall. The air around me was so thick with the Void that it almost felt like I might drown in it. I was getting closer to the battle, I could feel the pressures through the earth as godlike forces slammed against one another, tearing apart the world around them.

There was no time to pass through the gates so I pushed myself faster and harder to the only option left to me. With a gesture of my hand I erected a dangerously steep ramp against the wall, ready to redirect my body high into the air. I needed much more velocity than I had now if I hoped to clear the nine hundred foot wall.

My knees almost crumbled beneath me as I hit the incline, but I just gritted my teeth against the pain and held on. An indescribable relief washed over me as my mad plan succeeded and I flew through the air, perfectly perpendicular to the ground, my chest barely an inch away from the rough granite of the wall. If I were to even so much as touch the stone racing below me, my flesh would instantly be ripped from my bones under the immense friction. But, thankfully, my flight was as perfect as it was harrowing and I rose higher towards the clouds.

For what seemed like forever I ascended, arcing gracefully into the sky in a never ending trek to the stars; but I eventually began to slow down as my momentum began to ebb away into nothing, and I could once again pick out the individual blocks of stone that made up the great wall. The edge of the wall, the topmost point was coming ever closer, but I didn't know if I would make it.

At the last second, just as I reached the absolute apex of my flight and hung there for an endless second, bare inches from the edge of the wall, I reached out with well trained reflexes and was able to get a hand hold just before the undeniable force of gravity once again grabbed me. I grunted once more in pain as my fingertips were ripped upon the jagged edge of the wall as my full weight made its presence known. I held that position for as long as I dared, hanging by the finger tips of my only remaining arm, over a nine hundred foot fall to an inevitable death.

I took a steeling breath and began to swing myself back and forth, trying to get one of my feet near enough to the ledge to be able to pull myself up. A moment later I pulled my body onto the relatively even surface of the great wall, as my chest heaved for breath. My body wanted to just sit here for a few minutes to catch my breath and rest, but I could not; I was needed at the most important battle in two centuries.

I wrestled myself to my feet and ... saw it for the first time.

Oh, Kami.

Far out into the distance, almost at the edge of eyesight I knew a small oasis was nestled in the sands of the Monjava desert – I had taken refuge from the heat of the desert there myself on my first journey to Ba Sing Se. But now it seemed like the underworld itself was trying to claw its way into this reality with rotting hands.

A cloud of thick smoke slowly rose into the sky, with flames spewing from a hundred wounds upon the desert's gray flesh. The sky even at high noon was stained a sickly red. The broken corpses of the desert trees twisted in agony as they were consumed by the firestorm. A keening cry that echoed on the empty plain was the only warning when the air exploded out, laying low all of the blackening trees with a pressure shockwave.

The entire wall – all million tons of it – shook as an explosion painted the horizon a blinding white, throwing another smoky blemish onto the face of the sky. I was nearly thrown from the wall as the sound and force of the blast slammed into me; my quick Earthbending skills were all that kept my feet planted on the wall.

My one remaining eye seemed to have gained an unmatched acuteness when I had lost its counterpart, so I could see much further then most people; and when the uniform white that had been etched onto the backs of my eye slowly lifted, I saw it.

Two beings, one with burning red hair throwing masterful fire based attacks – not the small Airbender that I was told held the power of the Avatar – and one who seemed to be warping the light of the noonday sun, a whirlpool of... absence surrounding his weapon. The red-haired Avatar, the one who I felt the call from, bent all four elements against this foe in ways even I, considered one of the greatest Earthbenders in the world, had never thought of. And that monster just danced through them, screaming like a demon from the Seven Hells, moving like nothing I'd ever seen. It was as if he were in five places at once, and none, all at the same time. He was little more than an indistinct blur.

The blur raced though the flame and winds, slammed through the walls of stone as though they were nothing, never slowing even as the Avatar commanded all of the elements against him. The Incarna closed in on the Avatar, slashing and tearing with that sword of his, every moment a second closer to the Avatar's throat.

This Avatar, although possessing techniques far beyond me, was weak; she did not fight with the power one would expect of the Avatar. She did not have her full strength. I needed to get there as fast as possible lest the balance of the world be shattered forever. I was just about to leap from the lip of the great wall when the Avatar released a raging firestorm. I almost cried out in joy. I thought there was no way the Incarna's tricks could get him out of that. But I was wrong.

The Incarna brought his sword up in defiance, and it _ate_ the endless sea of fire like a voracious beast, allowing its master to charge forward. For the first time in almost two years, and a long time before that, I felt true terror. This time it was not simply myself accepting the horror of the situation; I was terrified. I was faced with something out of legends, something that hadn't tarnished the face of the world in unknown millenia. It was one of the weapons that had given the Gel-Hassad the power to bring the world to its knees in the first great war.

My scroll only had bits of the language, scraps of information, but I knew what this was. They called it _Hassad Yavim_, the black steel. In the hands of a master it was said one could tear a hole into the Void itself, capable of devouring any substance; including any of the four elements. Such weapons were supposedly only fabricated in the the Gel-Hassad's 'city of stars', but if such a place existed it wasn't called that now. But it was supposed to be lost! If this Incarna had such a weapon, and the means to forge more ... it could lead to the next great war; the final war.

We needed to stop this man, at any cost. The two figures slammed into one another in the distance and the wall shook again. I just got my balance back and was once again about to leap, already preparing to dive into the sands like it was an ocean when I was once again almost blinded. Looking up I saw that the Incarna had give the Avatar a little space, but it was the Avatar that drew my attention.

I had heard of this once before, from the Fire Jenkotsu. It was a technique called the Fires of Hell, a technique that pulled from the deepest reaches of one's soul; it was only possible when you truly hated your enemy. It was not the hate you have for a faceless warrior on a battlefield, but true hate for the person themselves. And when it detonated nothing was going to be left standing.

The Avatar channeled the Fires of Hell, and my heart fell when the Incarna sidestepped it. But then he did something I never expected: he started racing it. I stood amazed as the Incarna turned his back on his nemesis and raced after the attack designed to kill him. What was this thing thinking? My entire world seemed to stop when the Incarna threw himself in front the the flames and grabbed two people I hadn't noticed before, hurling them to safety before it was too late. The earth shook with the anger of the gods and wave after wave of searing heat rolled over me, brining tears of pain to my eye as I bore it unflinching.

Finally the light faded from my eye enough, allowing me to survey the damage. For a single second I could see nothing; I thought at first the glare was still from the attack, but I was wrong. The floor of the desert had been warped into a glass crater that reflected the noontime sun back into my eye. It was over, I had not been able to reach the Avatar. Even if I had not taken the moment to assess the situation I would never have been able to reach them in time. I felt the immense spirit pressure of the Avatar diminishing as my own doubts grew.

Had the Incarna, the seed of all evil, just sacrificed himself for two strangers?

-

-Sokka-

-

_-Present_

The last rays of the sunset were fading into the starry night as we became closer to the inner wall one step at a time. It had been decided that we should approach the inner wall on foot. Too many people knew what Appa looked like and there would at least be Fire Nation sentries on the lookout. We'd probably have to hide him somewhere if we were going to stay in the city itself. I wasn't sure now how we'd do it; but hey, I was the idea guy. I'd think of something.

As we walked I told them as much as I could remember about the airships. I spoke of the fear I felt when I looked at Azula, the paternal memories I had looking at the Knife-Girl, and the anger as I saw Combustion Man. I told them that we only had four days left before they made it to the city and Azula was unleashed upon it, and we agreed something had to be done, but tomorrow. Tomorrow we would plan and strategize, but today we were all too burnt out mentally and physically from the events of the last few hours to think much. We would find a way into Ba Sing Se, then find somewhere to sleep and deal with all of this in the morning.

For what seemed like the hundredth time I looked behind me, again seeing nothing.

"Sokka, there is no one behind us," said my sister not even bothering to look back anymore.

"I know," I said, not entirely convinced. I still couldn't shake the feeling someone was following us, even when I was looking back. Suddenly I stumbled and fell on my face, getting a mouthful of sand. Of course everyone burst out laughing as I spit out the wretched tasting sand. I tried my hardest to glare at them, but my heart wasn't in it. It felt great to be able to laugh again. For too many days I had been to serious, worried about the fuzz ball, the wolf and Mouretsu, but not anymore. Now everyone shared the burden with me. I didn't want to worry them or place anything more on their shoulders, especially Aang, but I had been told that's what families do; we help those of us in need. I was also told to stop being such a pig headed fool, trying to protect them from everything and bearing it all myself.

The faint sound of footsteps on the dirt behind us spun my head around once more, and again I saw nothing. It had been so distant I almost wondered if I had imagined it. I had some decent tracking and hunting skills taught to me by my father, and although I was taught to track in the snow and ice, they had proven pretty useful so far in all terrain. And if I wasn't mistaken, it sounded like there were four separate footfalls, spaced as though they belonged to a four legged animal. I frowned in concentration, trying to hear further, but nothing more made itself known.

This time I felt the earth form a small bump right in front of me and easily stepped over it as I reached into my pocket for the pebble that I had picked up the last time I had fallen. With a flick of my wrist I pinged the pebble off of Toph's bronze tiara and laughed at the surprised look on her face as it dropped down around her eyes. Sure she was already blind so it didn't really do anything, but it was funny. "You knew?"

"Yeah," I laughed.

"Knew what?" asked Aang.

"He was getting all broody again so I tripped him to break him out of it," Toph explained as she rearranged her tiara.

"You tripped him because he looked broody?" asked Aang incredulously. Toph just nodded. "What if he actually got hurt?"

"You're just sore because boomerang boy kicked your Avatar ass," Toph shot back.

"Shut up, too late to argue," muttered Katara.

"Sleep, sleep," I moaned, arms stretched out in front of me like a zombie. Aang laughed along with Toph as Katara threw one of her water skins at me which I easily dodged, running ahead cackling. I stopped well out of throwing range and waited for them to catch up.

"So, where are we going to sleep for the night? Camping again?" asked Aang.

"We'd have to camp pretty far out or the wrong kind of people might notice us. There isn't a lot of camouflage in all this farmland," said Katara yawning.

"We'll find a place inside the city," I said confidently, getting looks from everyone. "What?"

"You sound like you already got something planned," said Toph.

"Do I?" I asked with my eyebrows raised. When I got three nods back I just shrugged. "No, I got nothing right now, but with the remains of the tournament winnings and our winning personalities we should have no problem." I looked over to Toph for a moment and let another goofy smile develop. "Although Toph might want to keep her winning personality to herself."

"What?" she shouted in false indignation. "What's wrong with my personality?"

"Nothing," I said airily. "It's just that threatening and smashing everyone in sight until they give us a place to stay might be a little counter-productive, not to mention noisy and we don't want the Fire Nation to know were here, do we?"

"Always worked before," said Toph with her nose in the air.

"That may be, but sometimes a little money and flattery get us places a rock to the face won't."

"Don't make me come back there and put my foot against some of your flattery. We'll see what's better then."

I laughed again, "No Queeny, I give. Your foot is mightier then my flattery."

"Damn right, it is," said Toph sharing my laugher.

I chanced a peek over to where Katara and Aang were talked quietly. Really, they must think I'm an idiot. I may not have the best skills when it comes to reading people, but I'm not totally blind. Even I could see that they genuinely cared for one another. That's actually what I had taken Aang aside to talk to him about earlier today. I _had_ planned on having a discussion with him about Katara. I knew she hated the Water Tribe traditions on people seeing one another, and even though tradition demanded that Aang talk to the oldest available male before asking her out for the first time I was willing to throw him a line.

Personally, I was still a firm believer in the traditions; well most of them anyway, even I had to admit a few of them are pretty stupid and sexist. I knew Aang would never hurt Katara, and she was no dainty little girl either, but I still felt the need to make them think everything over, to make sure they knew what they were doing.

I had come so close to losing Katara and Toph to Yasuragi that it terrified me. I didn't want to lose anyone, I_ would _lose no one, but it had opened my eyes. We were in a war, and war was an ugly thing. It was possible that we could lose ourselves in the fighting and anger. I wanted us all to have a little anchor of happiness to hang onto, something to remind us who we were and what we were fighting for.

I had been just about ready to tell Aang that he had my blessing with a few conditions when he had come out and – in a very horrible imitation of casual – asked me about the Water Tribe traditions. To say that I was surprised was an understatement of the largest caliber. From the looks of it Aang had come to the same conclusion that I had and wanted to build that anchor with Katara, and if I knew Katara she did too.

If Aang was respectful enough of Katara's culture – even if she didn't embrace it – then that was fine with me. I would let Aang do the honorable thing if he wanted too, even though I knew Katara would kill me if I even thought of saying no.

It went like this the rest of the way to the base of the city wall – we had to tell Appa to go find somewhere to hide until we could sneak him into the city, and Aang kept the bison whistle close – with jokes, games and a few threats of drowning us in our sleep. It was really nice to loosen up once again. I looked up the near thousand foot wall that surrounded the city and almost got sick; it was _tall_ and I was getting a killer case of vertigo.

"So what now?" asked Toph. "I can get us all up there, but it won't be quiet and if there are any guards on this section they will ring the alarm."

I dropped my focus from the top of the wall back to something a little more about eye level. I walked forward, and ran my fingers over the edges of the blocks. The crevices were barely wide enough to get my finger tips in, and each block was at least ten feet tall. I toyed with one of the thousands of jumbled memories that the Archive had just throw into my head for some reason beyond me, and slowly a plan formed.

"I don't know," Aang said. "I guess me or Toph, going slow, could get up there without alerting anyone and then send down a signal to the other. But I'm not good enough with Earth Bending yet to be able to confidently climb that wall without making a racket. I could run up the wall with Air Bending, but that would leave you guys down here."

"Guess it's settled, I go alone and send down a signal-"

"Not alone," I said quickly, coming to a decision.

"What? Don't you think I can take care of myself?" asked Toph in an accusing voice.  
"Of course you can," I said easily, running my hand over the crevice in the stones again. "Its just that we're going into unknown hostile territory. It would be stupid for one of us to go off alone."

"I agree, but we have no choice. I can't climb a wall like this quietly, and even if I could that would leave no one down here to bring you and Katara up," Aang said. I turned back from the wall and locked eyes with him. For a moment he seemed to be lost, until he once again trailed his eyes back up the wall. "Oh."

"What?" asked Toph, obviously out of the loop.

"You two really have to stop these 'inside' talks," said an exasperated Katara.

How was I going to explain this to her? She accepted who I was becoming before, but that was when I had saved everyone's lives from a psycho Avatar. Would she still see me as me if I started doing more weird stuff all the time? I looked from Aang to Katara to Toph and back again, trying to figure out how to say it.

"Its more of that magic stuff isn't it?" asked Toph, sounding interested with a little grin on her face.

"Yeah, kinda," I said slowly, unable to tear my eyes away from Katara. The next thing I knew she was walking toward me confidently and took me into a very surprising hug. I was so stunned I just stood there dumbly until I heard her speak.

"Sokka, you're my brother and I love you. I admit this Incarna thing is a little overwhelming right now, but it's a part of who you are. I may be a little amazed or lost for words at times but I am not going to abandon you or fear you. Got it?" Okay, I once more felt like the world's biggest idiot.

"Yes," I responded past a clenched throat.

"I thought I already beat that_ 'monster'_ crap from you," said Toph with a grim expression.

"He's just an idiot sometimes," said Katara as she pulled back, "and he forgets that we're all in this together."

"He does," smirked Aang.

"Ah, cram it arrow boy."

"Come here and say that again Frosty," Aang said, spreading his arms in challenge.

"Wouldn't want to be blinded by the reflection from your head," I said, mimicking Aang's sly grin.

"You're just afraid your little black pocket knife can't stand up to the great and mighty Avatar," said Aang importantly, puffing out his chest.

"Okay, that's enough testosterone for now," said Katara as she poked Aang in the stomach, making him sputter. Toph just raised a fist in my direction and I pretended to shake in fear. "Now Sokka, what do you have planned?"

I though my plan over once more; it was simple enough. "Well, I was thinking I would go up with Toph and check for guards or the like, and then we would send down a signal and you would come up with Aang."

"And how are you going to climb the wall?" Katara asked frowning.

"I – I dunno," I said honestly. "I remember how to do it, at least a part of me does. It's simple and complicated at the same time. I just can't explain it in a way you would understand, hell, most of _me_ doesn't understand it. It has to do with the Void and a little bit of the physical body, and ... I'm sorry I really can't explain it, maybe in that other weird language, but not in this one."

"It's okay," my sister said, with that motherly voice of hers, "just be careful."

"I'll make sure he doesn't fall on his head like every other time," added Toph.

"Hey, I only fell because of you," I said, pretending to act wronged.

"Well, don't get all broody and I wouldn't have to."

"Oh, shut up all of you," Katara said tiredly. "I want to get into the city and in a bed before sunrise."

"Aye, captain," I replied sharply, saluting to Toph's glee.

"Just climb the damn wall you morons," muttered Katara.

I had to agree, I was getting tired too. So, without _too_ much more joking around I moseyed over to the wall next to Toph. "How are you going to get up there?" I asked her curiously.

In response she dug her fingers effortlessly into the stone, sinking up to the second knuckle. "Try to keep up Snoozles."

"Oh," I said slyly. "A race is it?"

"More like an humiliating defeat for you," she mocked.

I smiled widely as I reached deep inside of myself, searching for the cold flame of the void. It was much simpler to find it now. The memories said that once I found it I would always be able to call upon the Void at will. Huh, guess its like riding a penguin, once you learn and all that jazz.

The data began to scroll down the corners of my vision in a long chain of green light. Point seven percent maximum capacity; initial system overrides engaged. All subsystems functioning within acceptable parameters. Presence within Archive system – undetected.

I released a shuddering breath as my heart rate and vitals synced up with the Void energies inside me. I smiled wider at Toph. "Ready?" I asked in the Old tongue and before I even finished speaking she was off, tearing her way up the sheer face of the wall. I smirked and let my eyes slide up the wall as I plotted the best route to the top. It only took a few seconds before I had a direction and I raced up the wall after Toph, my fingers catching every little crevice and crack perfectly and my muscles easily pulling me up the wall. I felt lighter, as if something was adjusting my weight, making what would be exhausting motions almost effortless.

I looked back after I had gotten up sixty feet or so, still climbing at full speed, and caught sight of an open mouthed Katara staring up at me in the fading light. Noticing that I was watching her face immediately shifted into a sincere smile of encouragement. I smiled back and then shifted my focus back to the task at hand.

With a little over six hundred feet to go I pulled up next to Toph as she tore up the wall like a rabid dog, not very feminine sure, but making her look very beautiful with her hair blowing back from her face, allowing it to glow with the last rays of light just as the sun sank beneath the horizon. There was an expression of focus on her face, joy in the struggle and the challenge; it was prettier than any makeup. I was so entranced by her that I was surprised when she shot ahead. "Gotta do better then that! I don't lose that easily."

I laughed as loud as I dared and poured on more speed, my fingers and feet catching holds that would be impossible for anyone else, even some of the younger Gel-Hassad. I looked back once more just before I once again pulled up with Toph. I had just climbed up a little over five hundred feet of the great impenetrable wall, without aid or equipment. Yeah, I'm just awesome that way.

When we got within a hundred feet of the top we stopped, just hanging off one of the largest walls in the world. "Nivech sethras alhem et," I said airily to Toph in the flowing dialect of the Old Ones. 'Fancy meeting you here.'

"I know that was some stupid joke," said Toph as she closed her eyes and concentrated on feeling of there were any footsteps right above us. "It's good, c'mon."

I skittered up the wall next to her and dropped down onto the stone in a crouch, quickly scanning the shadows for anyone. Seeing nothing and no one I straighted up and walked back over to her just as she slammed a fist down onto the edge of the battlement, sending a ripple down the side. I assumed it was the signal that she talked about. I was just about to drop the Void so that I could talk to her again when I noticed something.

A nearly invisible gossamer thread was stretched between absolutely nothing just about eye level. It was beautiful and eternal, something that existed forever and was a binding force in the universe. I slowly reached out a hand and let it hover a fraction of an inch above the mysterious thread. What was it doing up here?

I barely noticed as Aang and Katara climbed over the battlements and started to whisper with Toph about something. I opened my senses a little more and was able to see more of the strange thread. I got a sudden flash of eyes with sideways hourglass pupils boring into me with laser intensity.

"_The lines of Fate are strong and true, but free will can overcome anything predestined._"

The lines of fate. That's what this was, a fate line. I let my finger gently rest on the thread, almost afraid to break it and was amazed to feel a tug at my chest. Looking down I saw that the line was connected to me just above my heart. Suddenly a muffled and distant explosion caught my attention and I looked up into the starry night, catching sight of what appeared to be a large metal ship floating above me, and falling from the ship was a ball of flames and flailing limbs. The body, unnaturally silent as it burned, fell behind the great wall with the sound of something heavy hitting a lot of water.

"Sokka!" Toph yelled, almost right into my ear. I turned very suddenly to her, the fate line slipping from my fingers. I quickly looked back to where the line had been only moments before, but it was gone. I had lost whatever it was that allowed me to see it in my distraction.

"Ghen'ethem?" I asked in irritation, still looking for the little thread.

"Lose the powers, we're going into the city right away," she said. I nodded and released the void, feeling the empty vastness of it leave me.

It took us a long while to creep our way down the stairs of the wall. Twice, Toph had to seal us all into a small alcove in the wall when a patrol came around, but eventually we set foot on the ground again and walked as quickly as we could while looking inconspicuously into the city. We had done it, we had snuck into a Fire Nation occupied Ba Sing Se; sweet. Now what?

The sound of the footsteps following us had stopped when we had crested the wall, but I couldn't shake the feeling that whatever it was was still back there. We stopped on a random street corner beneath the pale light of a spark rock lamp pole and tried to figure out our next course of action. When we had last been here we had been forced to stay almost exclusively in the higher class district, and although we still had almost the entire five hundred gold pieces of the tournament winning I wasn't sure it would cover the prices of any hotels we might remember. That means we would have to wander around until we found somewhere more in our price range. Katara groaned in frustration at that, but something silver caught my eye.

"What is it?" asked Aang as I slowly made my way over to where I saw the ... thing.

"I don't know," I said as I neared the corner. I looked down the next street with caution and just caught the last moments of a white tail snapping around the corner a little ways away. I felt a little fear, but there was something in the back of my head that told me this was natural and fine. I wasn't too sure about that, but my curiosity overcame me and I almost seemed to be walking toward the next corner not of my own accord.

"Sokka, we need to find somewhere to stay for the night," said Katara from somewhere behind me.

"I know," I responded simply, not really aware of what I was saying anymore; all that mattered was following the white tail. "I'm sure Pattern would be nice enough to put us up for the night."

"Pattern?" questioned Toph. "Sokka, are you sure your okay?"

"The Ger-Ghanim," Aang said, finally understanding.

"What, the teachers?" Toph asked as I lead them around the corner and down a long road.

"Yes," said Aang. "He must really need what this pattern guy can teach him."

"What does that have to do with anything?" asked Katara as she walked right beside me, studying me with a worried eye. "Why does he look like he's sleep walking?"

"How many times did I fail to find an Earthbending teacher?"

"We looked for a while," Katara admitted looking back as I continued to walk, barely taking in what they were saying.

"Exactly, I failed over and over to find the Earth Henkotsu. So the Avatar spirit or something else got tired of waiting for me or saw that I would need it very soon and gave me the visions of Toph that I had in the swamp."

"So," said Toph considerately, "something inside Sokka or watching him got tired of his bumbling and has taken the control and is guiding him to one of his senseis?"

"I think so," said Aang.

"What do we do?" asked Katara, looking back into my eyes.

"Nothing," said Aang, "Something powerful obviously thinks he needs this, so all we can do is watch out for Fire Nation guys and follow him."

"Do you hear that?" I asked, making Katara jump.

"Hear what?" she asked

"The clicking, like nails on the stones," I responded. I heard it, like canine nails on hard stone, clicking as something lead the way I could not help but follow.

"Sokka, do you know who's leading you?" asked Aang as we passed under another street lamp.

"Yes," I said smoothly as I turned again.

"Who is it?"

"The Incarna Spirit," I replied, still walking forward with total certainty.

"How do you know?" my sister asked.

"He told me," I muttered just loud enough for them to hear as I focused on something. "Now I smell puppies."

I might have been hurt or lost when Toph struggled to contain her laughter if I wasn't busy stalking my invisible companion.

"Are you sure he's okay?" asked Katara, looking a little leery. "I don't remember you getting all closed off and well... off when your spirit led you to Toph."

"Yeah, well his head isn't as thick as Sokka's either," said Toph once she could speak words again. "This spirit has probably been dropping hints the size of houses on his head and just got fed up with them not catching and started to shove him in the right direction."

"I suppose," my sister said, not sounding entirely convinced.

I stopped so abruptly that Aang walked into me before Katara caught him. I looked around, looking over the unfamiliar buildings bathed in the gold and silver of the moon and street lamps. We appeared to have stopped outside some sort of two story pub and gaming parlor. "Uh, guys? Where are we?"

"Sokka? Are you back?" asked Katara walking around in front of me looking into my eyes, as though trying to find my soul.

"Where are we? How did we get down from the wall?"

"We've left the wall nearly a half hour ago," Aang said slowly.

"What?" I breathed, "then why don't I remember --"

I stopped, looking deep within myself and found memories, explaining everything that had happened since we left the wall. It was all foggy and faded like a half forgotten dream, but it told me many things.

"I'm supposed to meet the Architect here," I said softly, once again turning my gaze to the building before me. It looked like nothing special, the 'Lotus Garden' looked just like every structure around it. Step by step I closed the distance between myself and the darkwood door.

"Oh crap, did the spirit thing take him again?" groaned Toph.

"No, I'm still me. But if I don't go in he probably will come back and force me to."

"Well that's a pleasant though," said Toph as she moved up right next to me. "Sounds like a bit of an ass to me."

I laughed. "Not really, I got more of a feeling of base instincts and goals. I figured out a while back that the Incarna spirit is just concentrate power with a list of goals to accomplish, its me that gives it personality and tact and whatnot."

"I suppose that makes sense," Toph said, not sounding convinced. "But I'm not sure. You giving tact to anything is a big leap of faith for me."

"So, are we going to go in and meet this sifu of yours?" asked Aang looking excited.

I nodded and lead the way forward, with Toph right at my side and Katara and Aang just behind me. I pushed open the door and immediately the clacking of tiles on boards drew my attention to the dozen or so tables of people, either graying with age or young and strong, all playing Pai Sho, drinking and talking. I made my way to the small bar they had between the entrance and the sitting room. Sitting there was a middle age man wearing clothes that seemed a little out of place in here, a little too expensive.

He eyed me suspiciously as we walked up and his eyes immediately snapped down to my right hand where I now held the white lotus tile that Piando-sensei had given me. I don't even remember taking it out of my pocket.

"Good evening, how may I help you?" he asked in a tone much more kind then he looked.

"Yegoth still stands in her people's hearts," I replied on pure impulse, getting a strange sideways look from Katara and an arched eyebrow from the man before me.

"Indeed it does," said the man. "What may I do for one of the People?"

"I require a game with the grandmaster," I said, still following instincts and repeating the replies that surfaced inside the memories of the Archive.

"I see," he said, looking a little harder at me. "Master Rashi could be out with you shortly."

"No," I said kindly, "I have a meeting with Haiyahi."

Both of his eyebrow disappeared into his hair at that. "Master Haiyahi is a very important and busy man. Are you sure about your meeting with him?"

"You'll find that I am also a very important man," I said with confidence, locking eyes with him.

"I see sir, I will see if Master Haiyahi has time to see you now." Then he turned and made his way to a door to the back room.

"What the hell was that?" whispered Toph as she continued to 'watch' the other people in the room.

"That was a conversation that would be held between two Gel-Hassad," Aang said, grinning.

"But Sokka isn't a Gel-Hassad," Katara muttered, trying not to be overheard.

"No, but the other man was."

Katara, a little pale, looked like she wanted to say something else, but the man was already striding over to us, looking somewhat surprised and just a little afraid. "Master Haiyahi will be out shortly, if you would like to follow me I could bring you to your table."

"We would like a corner table," I said smiling at the man.

"Of course sir, right this way." He turned heel and lead the way to the far corner where an empty Pai Sho board was sitting with two chairs. "If you like I could arrange more chairs for your companions?"

"We'll stand," Toph said in an authoritative voice. I couldn't help but smile a little; my little warrior Toph, always on guard. I would never have to watch my own back again as long as I had her around. I took the chair against the wall and the others stood on either side of me, looking out dangerously over the people in the room. A few looked back, but most looked away quickly when they saw Aang and Katara's expressions. You don't often get the dead eye stare from a bunch of teenagers.

"How many of them are Gel-Hassad?" asked Aang uneasily, though it didn't show on his face. He looked at me out of the side of his eye. I wasn't too good at spotting a seeming yet, and judging from the fact that the man at the counter had passed on my words, I guessed it wasn't a skill that too many had in spades. But I could get a general feel for the seemings, something that the Archive memories assured me would only increase; and they told me a very disturbing number.

"A lot," I smiled thinly at Aang and he gulped appropriately.

"Well, that's kind of an expected surprise," said Toph. I turned and looked at her confused.

"Your sensei is here," she explained, pointing toward the door that the desk man had disappeared into. I turned and felt dazed. Maybe Aang got this 'fall into you lap' thing right.

"Good evening, Sokka. It's good to see you again," said Piando as he stopped before the table.

I slowly rose to my feet as jaws dropped around me, well two anyway. "Oh, c'mon," huffed Toph. "Am I the only one that isn't surprised?"

"It would seem so Henkotsu," Piando said casually. "Now, I am sure everyone is tired and wishes to retreat to the beds in the back, so why don't we get started?" For a long time I was speechless; I supposed it made sense, but to actually _know_ that Piando-sensei was one of the Gar-Ghanim was a little much to take in.

While I gathered my thoughts Piando gestured a waitress over. "I would like a cup of white leaf tea if you please," he said to the young brunette waitress that came over. "Would you like anything before we start?"

"Start what?" I asked, getting a little of my sense back.

"That, Sokka, will all be explained in time. Just know that it is vital training if you are to continue on your path. Now if you would like to have a seat," asked Piando with a smile. "Why don't we play a friendly game while we're here? You can learn much from Pai Sho. I have always found it to be most enlightening."

Toph tilted her head towards the other people in the Pai Sho parlor, her unseeing gaze sweeping the room as I sat down, looking at the tiles before me. Figuring I was as collected as I was going to be I ran my hand over them. "I've never played Pai Sho before."

"That's okay. We're going to do this a little differently Sokka," Piando said. He reached for a tile and looked me straight in the eye, placing it at the center cross section of the board. "Do not think. Just look into my eyes and do what comes naturally. Allow your instincts to guide you."

With hesitation, I picked up a tile. I placed it on the table.

Clack.

I remembered.

_The ice field was my home, and my stubby little four-year-old legs carried me as fast as they could over the frozen plain. Piando strode beside me with a deep red coat wrapped around him. I was running to get stronger, to get faster. I was only four, and Piando was a grown up, but he kept pace with me, talking all the while._

_"In the beginning, there was the World," he said in his most serious voice. "And the Gods and Man lived as one. This was called the time before ages. Then the Old Ones came. From the stars they arrived, bringing with them steel, science, and burning light. This was the beginning of the First Age, the age of the Elder Ones."_

Clack.

_I was practicing as a five-year-old with my machete, swinging it wildly. A firm hand grasped mine._

_"No Sokka," Piando commented. He adjusted my grip and gave me a stern look. "You must practice the forms in the proper way or you will never be able to move beyond them. Once you have, you will be the ultimate Pattern; the pattern without form, the pattern of the Universe itself."_

Clack.

_I sat in the snow, watching as Piando stood beside me, a whalebone in hand, sketching symbols upon the icy surface with immaculate care. _

_"You must remember Sokka," he said patiently,"that interlocking seals have only certain acceptable configurations. If you do not align the seals correctly, the spell will not function; or worse it could backfire on you."_

_I nodded with the conviction that only a five-year-old could muster. He handed me the bone._

_"Your turn now."_

Clack.

_"The key to Gel Hassad spirit shaping is in the understanding that you are not altering the fabric of reality," Piando said, sitting next to Gran Gran with a smile. "Instead, you are tapping into rules of the universe, rules that must be obeyed, just as any rule. The key to mastering the gifts of Pattern is to understand that the world's rules are not breakable, but rather have shortcuts within them. You cannot, for instance, turn back time, reset the world."_

_We sat around the village's central fire. Piando accepted a bowl of sea prunes and passed yet another to me, with a smile to my grandmother. She went over to help six-year-old Katara with delivering the meals to the older tribeswomen. She winked at him as she left and he turned back to me with a serious expression._

_"Think of this," he said with a wry smile. "I could not reset time, no mortal could do such a thing. The laws of the universe forbid it; but what is time save for the order that memory gives it? What if I were instead to re-order memory in the present? Is it time travel? Certainly not. May it achieve some of the same ends? Can creativity trump raw power? Achieve what others deem impossible? I will let you be the judge of that, Sokka."_

Clack.

_I finished the intricate seal array upon the glacier. Piando gave me a stern glare as he walked up and corrected one of the sigils. Then he hit me upside the head so hard I flew into a nearby snow bank. _

_"Sloppiness will kill you Sokka," he said grimly. "And not just you. Your sister and your friends will be in danger as well. Again!"_

Clack.

_"There are many who revere the Old Ones, Sokka, not just the Gel Hassad," Piando continued to lecture as we repaired the fishing nets for the catamarans. "The Beetle worshipers of the Earth Kingdom Desert being a well-known sub culture. Others, such as the Yu Yan include humans in their ranks. Even the Sand Benders worship gods that are in true fact Old Ones."_

_"Really?" my ten-year-old voice squeaked. _

_"Never believe for a second that this world is a vacuum my boy," Piando said with a sage nod. "The Old Ones had just as many supporters once as the Gods of this world. The Incarna was as much the mind of the peoples of the world as the Avatar was their heart. Let this be a lesson as well; when the head and the heart fight, usually the head loses. Mouretsu lost, despite superior combat forces, because he could not understand why the humans fought so hard at such random intervals. Yasuragi, for all her many flaws, was a passionate woman with the will to win and win she did, though at hideous cost."_

Clack.

_"It worked!" my twelve-year-old voice shouted as the intricate shaping worked into the snow lit up with green hell fires. There was a horrible crack of lightning and the working was gone. I fell to one knee in the snow, panting as I looked upon what I had called across the mists of space and time. _

_The shoggoth reared up in the snow, angry and formless, shaping horrible maws and tendrils while it's piping song made the air around us ripple with its power. I stood again and raised my palm outward, the uneven five pointed star of the Old Ones inscribed upon it glowing with more green fire._

_"Bow before your master, slave," I roared. Even though I was exhausted, I felt a cold sense of triumph and determination. Our wills clashed and the snow flew away from us as the winds were kicked up by its unnatural presence. Primal unthinking hunger fought against an interlocking pattern of thought and will that I had chained around the beast. It's black oozing form reared up in anger, but I just stared. Stalks with slitted eyes extruded from the mass and peered at me. Then, with agonizing slowness, the great beast bowed before me. _

_I howled my victory cry to the stars, and a strong hand clasped my shoulder._

_"This is only the beginning of what you may accomplish."_

Clack.

_"So the Old Ones and the Gods made a treaty then?" I asked. Piando nodded. I watched as thirteen-year-old Katara walked past me and waved. I returned the wave. My little sister was growing up._

_"Yes, but only after the Old Ones had forced them to," Piando said. He added more bait to his fishing hook and dropped it into the ocean again. "You see, they had achieved the greatest spirit shaping in all of history. They created the Great Barrier between the worlds. They sought to keep the Gods in check, for the Gods could be petty and cruel as well as powerful and magnanimous. The Great Barrier was their response to the Gods creating their chosen bender children."_

_Piando rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Just as the Old Ones together were mightier than Gods, Man united was mightier than the Old Ones. Remember this Sokka; unity and will are greater than any power save that of the Source of the Universe itself. Even the Demon Sultan Azathoth bows before it. However, without desire, will, and knowledge of the Pattern of the Creator, Azathoth will triumph. You must remember Sokka; ITS agents promote chaos, anarchy, and strife. Only unity, love, will and faith can stand against IT, which is why IT hates them so."_

_Piando gave me a serious look. "Remember this Sokka. Alone you are just a man. Together you are not just people, not just legend, you are the sum of what is put together and more. You are an Idea and a Mission. It is much harder to kill an idea than a man."_

_"So I need to become an idea?" I asked, feeling a tug on my line. Piando shook his head._

_"No," he said. His eyes became red, black cross pupils locking with my own. "You must induce _them_ to _believe_. If you do this, not even the Haunter in the Dark will be able to fight you. The belief will make what was destroyable untouchable. Indestructible."_

Clack, clack, clack.

_Zuko's ship prepared to ram the iceberg that the village rested upon. I stood there. In another life I would have worn the gray and black face paint of the Water Tribes. Now I stood with the black cloak of a Spirit Shaper, dressed in the insectoid-segmented armor of a servant of the Old Ones. In my hand I held no weapons._

_A master Spirit Shaper needs no weapons. His mind and will are weapons that even a master bender should fear._

_The huge bulk of the ship approached, and I held out one hand, green fire glowing on the tip of my finger. My eyes became black like the night's sky, and I could feel the other villagers, even Katara, back away from me. I turned to look at them and smiled._

_"Go," I said. I watched Katara nod hesitantly, and gather the elderly of the village up and move them away from where the ship was heading. I turned back to the incoming bulk of metal and traced my finger through the air in a pattern that I had practiced a thousand times with Piando. The air itself rippled as the frigate's hull rammed into the iceberg. Good-it was nice and stuck. They couldn't run away fast enough. The seal inscribed upon the air amplified itself, growing out from the small beginnings to become a glowing wall of green light, ten thousand symbols upon the air, a hundred feet in diameter. I closed my eyes, and my breath misted even the dry air of the South Pole. _

_When they snapped open I spoke._

_"Je'halam Ve Ne Salkehm," I hissed. "Invetres Divish'na Olrec in ghem!"_

_The surprised Fire Nation crew watched as the sky peeled back and the song of the Void echoed through the aether. Then It came. The soldiers on the main deck were bathed in a light that had no name, a color from beyond space and time, something that the human mind, even my own, was not equipped to handle. Good thing I wasn't able to see it._

_I almost felt sorry as the Fire Nation soldiers clawed their own eyes out to make it stop. Almost. Their screams were pitiful._

_The working was powerful, but it wouldn't last long. I was in motion even before it collapsed in on itself, slamming my hands into the spells I had wrought onto the ground behind me. They sparked with green lightning, so unlike that of the fire benders, yet similar enough to cause fear. There was a snap and they were there. Two of them. Their piping song drifted across the glaciers and oceans, haunting and terrible._

Tiklili! Tiklili!

_"Your master commands you," I said._

Tiklili!

_"Consume."_

_The Fire Nation soldiers screamed. I turned, my cloak floating in the wind, and walked away. It was already over. They just didn't know it yet._

_I am the destroyer. The Incarna._

_They didn't stop screaming for a long time._

A final 'clack'.

_Aang and Katara stood next to Appa with me. Gran Gran was handing up supplies with Aang's help when Piando walked up next to me and placed both hands upon my shoulders and smiled at me. I felt a tug at my gut. No one had smiled at me that way since my father left. He looked... proud; very proud._

_"You have proven yourself Sokka,"_ _Piando said. "You have been given the histories of our people and a more thorough education in the art of spirit shaping than most will ever get. I prepared this spell years ago, and spent almost five years of my life crafting it. I can proudly say that it is my finest work, my greatest triumph."_

_"I kept watch for you," Piando said. He looked me in the eye and pursed his lips. "I knew that you would come. In truth, I suspected that you were the Incarna the moment you brought the meteor to me." _

_He let out a long sigh. "I have always wanted to help this world. I have known since I was a young man that I would meet you one day. Once long ago, a beautiful prophet told me that I would craft my greatest work for the sake of this world. She told me that I would forge the sword that would save the world."_

_"At first I thought that it was the blade itself, but as I grew older I understood," Piando trailed off for a moment. "The true forge of the sword is not in the fire, but in the mind. The Black Sword is just a tool. I have given you my true sword Sokka, the greatest weapon, the greatest gift I have to give; my knowledge."_

_His blood red eyes pierced me as his seeming vanished, and he stood tall. Black stabilizers rose over his back like insect wings and his hair and beard became whipping tendrils that danced over armored exoskeleton. Still, despite the pain I knew that facial expressions caused them, Piando gave me a brilliant smile. He went down on one knee before me and bowed._

_"My lord," he said quietly. "I am at your command."_

_"Stand," I said quietly, kneeling down beside him. "You will never bow to me, sensei. Never."_

_The two of us stood up and I felt the rays of the setting sun upon my face. I was a spirit shaper now; a real one._

"Well, at least it doesn't have a rainbow this time," Piando said, breaking the eternity of silence. He was smiling like Momo with a freshly caught badger frog. I looked at him, our eyes still locked, and tears filled my eyes. He nodded once, and made a gesture at the table. I looked down to see the jagged Yang symbol on the board.

The symbol of the Incarna.

"Also," Piando said with a twinkle in his eye. He snapped a tile at me with a nonchalant ease. I caught it with one hand. "A young lady asked me to send you her regards. She still remembers you fondly and sends her deepest love. She looks forward to meeting you again, and she has not forgotten her promise. I must say, she was a most insistent and charming young woman."

I opened my hand and stared down at the crescent moon on the tile. I almost couldn't believe she'd spoken with him, save that my memories told me it was well within his capabilities. Now they were my capabilities too.

"Yue."

"So I am given to understand," Piando said in agreement. "Sooner would be perhaps better than later. You have the means, do you not?'

"I do now, sensei," I said and I couldn't keep the humor out of my voice. Talk about your ultimate inside jokes. "One thing though; I never did understand why you loved sea prunes so much."

"They remind me of ocean kumquats," Piando said with a shrug. "A taste of home I suppose. Anyhow, no doubt after that little display, word will get around that you're in town. Perhaps it would be best were we to speak elsewhere. Come with me."

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Jade Knight - Richard Caine - Kitty

**Please Remember to Review**

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	15. Dreams and Wolves

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It is a quiet night at the barracks as the Knight types away, fingers dancing over the keys. Outside, unknown to him a mob is forming. They have been hunting him for a little under six months now, and they have finally found him.

The green knight gets up from his desk and walks over to the window of the highest tower, expecting to see a peaceful sunset. He had a rough few months. Physical problems matched with questions about his future as a writer. Was he good enough, could he match those greats already out there?

He had decided a month ago he could damn well try and thats just what he planned on doing.

Below him in the courtyard he notices touches and people milling around. Some were quickly setting up tents and other equipment including what looked like a catapult . For a single moment he grinned beneath his harlequin visor... at least until he saw them raising a large green painted wooden man who looked a little like a knight with his sword and shield. He was getting a bad feeling.

His feeling were confirmed as they set fire to the huge replica of him.

"Jade!" screamed the lead lunatic. "We tried sending you private messages. You received almost twenty one of them and yet you did not update."

"But I have it now!" he tried to call to them.

"We have come to send you the way of Frankensteins monster you horrible man!" a little girl shrieked from the shoulders of her big brother.

"Listen people," the knight pleaded. "I have chapter fifteen done; sixteen is in final edits and seventeen is almost finished being drafted! I even have some work done on eighteen!"

suddenly he catches a glimpses of cat ears in the masses. "NO, you monters! We've been looking everywhere for Kitty! What are you doing with her?!"

"She lead us here!" called a random man holding a sword.

"She would never!"

"You'd be amazed at how persuasive a ball of string and catnip can be," cackled an collage student.

"oh crap, that'd do it," muttered the knight. A moment later a boulder flew through the wall right next to him, scratching his armour. "AHHHH!"

He clambers up the stairs to the battlement and almost weeps in relief at what he sees. "Richard!"

"Hell you want?" Richard Caine asks as he lounges easily against the stone sipping an umbrella drink.

"You can stop them!"

"Why?"

"Why what!" screeched the knight. "They want to burn me alive and dance on my ashes!"

"Serves you right," he laughed as flaming arrows just barely miss him. "You should never abandon the great and powerful being known as Writing. She is a cruel mistress that you never want to mess with."

"I know that! But you have to save me from these psychos!"

"I have to do no such thing, I had my forty pages over to you five months ago. This is your problem."

"You monster!"

Richard grins demonicly. "You've read what I'm gonna do."

The Jade knight can only shudder as the battlement is blown apart.

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**-The 'M' rated chapters are under dispute again. They are coming, my stuff just mutated a little too much this time and its been pushed back again.-**

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And if you could please release Kitty... we need our beta! That means this chapter is unbeated and may be re-uploaded later.

KITTY WE NEED YOU! (Richard coughs) alright fine my writing needs you. (sticks out tongue at Richard.)

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**I added more Forum Topics! Go check them out. I listed them at the bottom of the page as to not ruin anything. DO NOT READ THE TOPICS BEFORE THE CHAPTER! THEY ARE SPOILERS!**

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One last thing; We are** NOT **'becoming crossover'! you will find a few 'Easter Eggs' as Richard likes to call them strewn throughout this and other chapters. They are for fun and not the core of the story. and I didn't tell you this...** but Richard just may have already slipped one past you!** now am I easing you into the idea or and i telling the truth? I dunno... but he is much more subtle then I am. I'm more of a 'shoot first, shoot later, shoot some more and then when everything's dead ask a question or two" kinda guy.

hehe, wild wild west.

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-Curtain up!

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**Sokka: Master of the Black Sword**

Author: The Jade Knight

Co-Author: Richard Caine

Beta: Kitty (A.K.A. kathykatinahat)

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**-The Resistance Saga-**

**Chapter 15**

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The Story of Sokka

Dreams and Wolves

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I stood on a grassy cliff overlooking the ocean. I sighed deeply as the setting sun caressed my face. I wasn't sure how I got here, but I knew I was asleep; so I think it was a pretty good assumption that either the Cat or Mouretsu had a hand in this. I listened to the crashing waves as I waited for the Furball to come frolicking along, casting more fire and doom prophecies at me. I really didn't want to deal with either of them right now.

I turned around to start walking down the hill. Maybe they were waiting to pounce at me from behind a bush or something. Wouldn't want to keep them waiting; after all, we haven't spoken in a while and it's only polite to keep in touch. The gravel of the path crunched loudly beneath my sandals as I dragged my feet. A stiff wind blew in off of the ocean and almost seemed to be pushing me along.

"Yeah, yeah," I muttered darkly. "I'll be right there, you bastards."

I walked along, following the path for a while until a small village came into view, a very familiar village. I knew I had been here before, I just couldn't place it. It was relatively small, what some people could call a quaint little fishing village. A small cluster of very beautiful houses were built around one another and painted a deep earthly green, all facing toward the inlet off of the ocean. The sun crawled a little higher into the sky as I drew closer to the border.

I realized why this village seemed so familiar about halfway down the path. But why would the furry rat bring me here? She'd best not be planning something dastardly. I crossed into the village of Kiyoshi still wondering why I was here and caught the sounds of fighting inside one of the houses. It was quiet here, unnaturally quiet. There were no children playing, mothers hanging clothes to dry or boats riding the waves. The village was bare save for the sounds of combat.

I walked toward the sounds, knowing that this was a dream and no one was really in danger. I paused in front of the building that housed the indoor dojo where I got my ass handed to me by Suki; sounds of fighting were expected to come from there.

I pushed open the door stopped just inside, not letting the door close all the way. I watched from there for a while as six figures dressed in full warrior makeup and battle dresses went through their training sequences. As I watched I remembered learning the same moves all those months ago, and I almost wanted to join them; no dress or makeup this time though.

As I watched, I was once again entranced by their fighting fans. I didn't know why they held me so before and nothing had cleared up with this new power of mine. I traced the edges of the folded cloth over sharpened metal skeleton with my eyes as a dozen of them flashed in the sunlight that filtered in through the windows. There was always something about them, something familiar and painful.

"Sokka!" someone shouted, and suddenly one of the six broke off and came at me and before I could even react to my name I was pulled into Suki's arms. I stiffened as soon as we touched and she pulled away and looked up at me.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes," I said tightly. Inside I was screaming that this was Genzou's new way to torture me; wasn't I confused enough with Toph? Now I had to deal with Suki also.

Wait, this wasn't right, something was wrong here. I looked down at Suki, she seemed fine, albeit looking at me a little oddly. I glanced around at the other girls. It was them, there was something wrong with them. As I took on more and more of Suki's attention the other girls in the room started to fade and lose their details.

"Suki," I asked, playing with a theory. "Where are we right now?"

"We're in the dojo Sokka, you know that we meet here every afternoon," said Suki, making it sound like a crazy question.

"Do we? Come here every afternoon I mean?"

"Yes," she said, leaving nothing to doubt. "You left this morning before the sun came up, and went down to the docks to get your fishing crew going like always."

"I have a fishing crew?" I asked feeling like the world had went and got crazy without me. What the hell was all of this now?

"Of course you do, you bought a boat when we came back to Kiyoshi seven years ago. You said it was the only thing you were ever good enough at to make a living. But I know you just like the water; it reminds you of the South Pole."

"I see," I said slowly.

"What's with you today?" she asked. "I haven't seen you this down since before the war ended."

"The war ended?" I asked dumbfounded as a revelation washed over me. This _wasn't _one of Genzou's tricks, somehow I knew this really was Suki, and that meant that...

A sinking feeling started to develop deep inside.

"Of course," she said, her voice chipper and light. "But let's not talk about the war, okay?"

"Papa!" someone else shrieked. I turned and was almost knocked over as something small in a tiny green dress much like Suki's slammed into my legs.

"Nani," Suki laughed as she reached down to pry off the small girl who had attached herself to me. "You're getting too big to do that much longer."

"Aww," groaned Nani as she let herself be picked up by Suki. Now sitting in Suki's arms I got a better look at her. She was small, maybe three years old and the phrase 'cute as a button' might as well have been coined specifically for her. She wore a small green dress, much like the Kiyoshi battle dresses but made from a light cottony material as opposed to stiff combat resistant fabric. She looked up at me with large sparkling blue eyes... my eyes.

"Ar' we 'till goin fer da pic'ic Papa?"

"Yeah Sokka, are we going for that picnic you promised me yesterday or what?" asked Suki as she and Nani both tried to look as cute as possible.

"Pweeze papa," said Nani, pushing out her bottom lip.

"Yeah, pweeze papa?" asked Suki, matching her daughter's near identical face.

I closed my eyes as sadness entered my heart. Something deep inside me, that cold abacus of inhuman precision that I'd come to understand was the Incarna's birthright, told me that this was Suki's dream, and I was intruding. For a moment I almost had hope that this was just a random dream; I knew how weird some of them could get. But the machine coldly reminded me that it wasn't. I was seeing her dream for the future, not just a sleep induced farce.

I realized then that I was no longer the man I once was. In truth, I don't think I ever had just a regular future, but now I knew many things about the path I was on. I knew who and what I was to become, and I knew that no matter how hard I tried I could never give Suki the future she needed. I had been silently pleading for some sort of resolution to this issue I was having between Toph and Suki, and it seemed I was given the answer.

I didn't know what I wanted, but it wasn't this. I always wanted what was best for both of them, for them both to be happy. But seeing this, I knew that I would have to break a dream to give Suki the life she needed.

"Suki," I said, my voice low and sincere. "You're in a dream right now."

"What?" she asked, her eyes squinting at me as if trying to find the punch-line to a joke. Nani squirmed in her arms uncomfortably as the other warriors in the dojo vanished. The almost comforting symbols began to scroll across the edge of my vision in green light, telling me that Suki's attention was being pulled to the possibility that this was all a dream, and so the dream was falling apart. It was almost enough to convince me I wasn't a complete madman.

"It's not a joke Suki, you're in a bed somewhere right now and I've somehow ended up in your dream."

"But -" she started, still searching my eyes for that little smirk that would tell her this was all some kind of joke; that she could go back to her perfect world. I pulled her close, into a tight embrace and just held her for a minute, little Nani fading in our arms. Sometimes what you need isn't always what you want or can handle at the time. I knew with a growing certainty that I was destined down one fork of this crossroads, and Suki was to travel down another.

"I'm sorry Suki, I'll find you and we'll talk about this more. I promise," I whispered softly into her hair.

"This is all a dream?" she asked, only half of her believing it. The world around me suddenly went black and the weight in my arms vanished as I was surrounded by nothingness. She had woken up and I was left in the dark, with nothing but my thoughts to torment me.

Love was not always easy or beautiful; sometimes it was hard and painful. The Gods knew that I had learned that in my life.

I don't know how long I stood there in the nothing, just gazing into the black, listening to my own breathing. I idly wondered what I was breathing, but it was a fleeting thought. Some part of me, some very human part of me just wanted to stay in here forever. In here, in the black there are no hard decisions or pain; there is no love and heartbreak. In here I didn't have to have that impossible talk with Suki. But I also knew that the world would not wait for me. Standing there, with just myself as company I came to a decision.

"I need to talk to someone who knows what's going on, someone with answers," I said into the darkness, not too sure if this would work. Queries in a language that I did not fully understand materialized in the black, hellfire green against the emptiness, playing before me faster and faster. Information whirled; it was searching, looking for an answer. Finally it locked onto something. I took a step forward into the black and immediately felt my foot touch down on something solid. I pulled myself completely into this new world and looked around. The sun was high in the sky and it seemed faded; less then I thought it should be. Frozen, empty tundra rolled off into the distance in every direction; the uniform white broken only by a few drifts. I was standing on an almost perfect ice sheet, in the middle of what looked like one of the poles. Okay?

My breath puffed before my face and the cold air bit at my face. Immediately I wished I had my Water Tribe weather gear with me and as soon as the thought was complete I felt my body get heavier as layers of cloth and fur formed out of nowhere.

Well, at least this was one good thing. I was cold so warm clothes appeared out of nowhere. I ran a gloved hand over the thick blue fabric, it seemed harmless. It might have just been my imagination but it seemed like every time I tried out a new ability or learned something more about this Incarna stuff something bad happened to me; whether it be burning or psycho avatars. Yeah I'm a pessimist, but I have better reasons than most. I surveyed my surroundings and was not disappointed.

Life just liked to dump on me, huh?

"You have summoned me, Lord Incarna?" intoned Yue from her spot kneeling on the snow before me. For a full minute I just looked at her, not moving, barely breathing.

I looked to my left just as a tall wall of ice rose up from the ground. It seemed that anything I wanted appeared in this dream world; useful. I did not respond to Yue, instead I walked slowly over to the wall, tested it with my hand first to make sure it was real, and then proceeded to slam my head into it over and over.

My plan was to continue banging my head until I was either unconscious or life felt that it had punished me enough, but then a hand caught my forehead from striking the ice again. "You're going to hurt yourself if you keep doing that," said a deep male voice form beside me.

"Seems like everyone wants a piece of me lately," I said sarcastically, not looking at this new man yet. I'm having girl trouble, so why not have all three of the girls I care for come at me one after another and force me to destroy everything? Yes, that will do _nicely_. And people wonder why I'm so upbeat. "I just thought I should get a few shots in too."

"Beating yourself up never solved anything, I thought we figured that out a long time ago?" said the man in an amused voice. "And you sound like you're giving up; nothing ever got done when someone gave up."

"What?" I asked, confused. I followed the arm that had stopped my head banging and came to a smiling face. "Do I know you?"

He stood a head taller than me and seemed about my build. He had messy brown hair that flew wild in the light wind we were having and his blue eyes smiled at me. I frowned as I guessed his age at about thirty; I could swear I knew him from somewhere. He wore a red and white jacket that looked well worn and when he pulled my hand forcibly into his own for a shake, I was still imitating a fish.

"Hello there," he said in a cocky little voice.

"Hello?"

"You do know she's going to stay that way until you tell her to get up," he asked, nodding to Yue.

"Oh," I muttered. I had almost forgotten she was doing that. "Yue, please get up. All of this bowing is very weird for me."

Yue stood back up – and although she hid it very well, the small grimace did not escape me. Almost as soon as she was righted again a graceful smile fell on her delicate face. Wow, she looked a lot more beautiful than the last time I saw her. But there was also something very different about her, something just as infuriatingly familiar as whatever this guy or those damn fans had. She glided forward over the ice with womanly grace, her complicate gown of sashes and thin silks flowing behind her. "It is good to see you once more Incarna."

"Yue," I pleaded, not knowing how much more strange I could handle today; but it wasn't much. "Please don't start using all of these titles; I'm uncomfortable with all of this as it is."

"Sure, Sokka." she said, smiling. "I suspect you have met with The Architect already?"

"Yeah," I said, glad for the momentary distraction. "He did some spell work with my mind and now I have the knowledge of the spirit shapers."

"What?" asked the man, eyebrows raised. "All of it?"

"At least enough to hold my own." Truthfully I had no idea how much I really knew or could do as I hadn't tried it out yet.

"But you didn't call me just to talk about what The Architect taught you, did you?" Yue asked. Smart girl.

"No," I said softly, my breath puffing before me, my eyes falling to my feet. Damn this Incarna crap back to whatever hell it crawled out of, my life seemed so much simpler before. I'm a smart guy, so I know on some level that it's just my perception. The Incarna bit has nothing to do with it; but it's nice to have something to blame. "I'm doing all of this aren't I? Suki, calling you somehow and created this this frozen world?"

"Yes, Incarna," the man said. I bit back my annoyance at the title and pushed on.

"Is there-" I started, but my voice broke. "Is there any chance that I was wrong? That it wasn't Suki I saw, or that it was just some random dream?"

Yue's face was edged in sorrow and I knew the answer even before she spoke. "I'm sorry Sokka, but that was what she really dreamed the future would be."

"Yeah, I thought so," I mumbled. I felt the urge to complain about how fast all of this keeps coming at me, but I already knew it would go nowhere. "Alright, let's get on with it."

"With what?" asked the man, a little confusion evident.

"Well, someone is going to come at me right away, knowing much more about this Incarna crap than I do, but they will be sure to tell me absolutely nothing I could use while trying to either make me think I'm becoming a monster or burn me alive."

"Wow, I see what you mean about seeing the bad sides first," the man said to Yue, who only cracked half a smile. "He wasn't like this back when I knew her."

"So it's you, huh?" I said stiffly, glaring at the man. "You're going to go on about this and that and never tell me who this '_her_' is while telling me just enough to confuse the hell out of me. Well, get on with it; I'm sure Genzou or Mouretsu are waiting in line behind you, wouldn't want to keep them waiting too long."

For a long moment nobody said anything, we all just stared, smiled and glared at one another, until the man burst out laughing so hard he almost fell to his knees. I stood back to patiently wait for the merry making to be over when the tinkle of Yue's giggle joined in. My anger felt like a cold river in my veins. I reached out, again the green light coming into my vision. I looked at the underlying pattern to the dream and decided to make a few… edits. Silently I thanked Piando as I ended up sitting in a squishy red chair that appeared out of nowhere as they showed no indication of stopping. I reached over just as a cherry wood table rose up from the snow, supporting a steaming cup of tea sitting on a saucer.

"So," I said as the man stopped laughing to put on a surprised expression at the ease I made myself comfortable. "Are you going to give me a name for you or are we just going to call you La?"

The spirit of the Oceans' mouth dropped open and his eyebrows disappeared into his hair. Good, it's about damn time these spirit bastards were on the other side. "Damn, no wonder he's scaring the shit out of everyone."

"Alright boys it's time to calm down," Yue said getting between us obviously feeling the impending frosty doom. "Sokka, we are not here to confuse you; we're on your side. We're here because we want to help answer some of the questions you have."

"And what about when the Flea bag or Mouretsu get here?" I asked, not taking my eyes off La.

"They're not coming," said Yue, her grin creeping a little more. "You made sure of that."

I broke off my stare with La and turned back to Yue, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means you've got everyone running around in circles screaming like children, or hiding under things," La said, still sounding amused.

"Oh, so you can explain something huh?"

"Sokka, do you wish to meet with either Genzou or Mouretsu?"

"No," I said bluntly.

"And that's why you haven't seen them recently." She smiled wider at me in what was supposed to be a comforting fashion, and damn me it worked a little.

"What?" I shot back. How are my two most favorite people in the world going to make my day spectacular now? What was Yue talking about?

"Sokka, think about it for a minute," she said. "The first time you accessed the Void was only five days ago. But already you have defeated the Avatar, learned enough spirit shaping to be considered a combat-master, begun stepping into dreams_ and _you recognized La as the spirit of the oceans at barely a glance."

"You're frightening them," continued La. "You've got more Void power then they thought any human could contain without going critical and your gaining power at an impossible rate. The last man to gain power this fast was-"

"The half-dead king," I finished, my face crinkled in thought as memories surfaced.

"See!" shouted La. "You shouldn't even know anything about the first Incarna. You're their worst nightmare. You are unpredictable and it's scaring everyone."

"First?" I asked, losing my thoughts. I met the Ocean's deep blue eyes. "He wasn't the first."

"Yes, he was. Whenever anyone has ever done a search of the Archive for the Incarnai he was always proclaimed as the first."

"He was powerful, and he did ... something great," I mumbled, but nothing came to me.

"He was the first," La stated with total conviction.

"Alright whatever," I conceded, waving a hand "Now what was that stuff you said about me not wanting to see the cat or Mouretsu?"

"Well," Yue said slowly, obviously still trying to figure out exactly how to tell me. "The Incarna is the most powerful spirit shaper in existence, meaning you will be one day, and both Genzou and Mouretsu are pure spirit energy."

"Yeah, what the hell are they anyway? Why is the flea bag a cat?" It had been bugging me since I had met her. If I was to give the 'keeper of the future' a form it sure as hell wouldn't be a little kick-able cat. I couldn't help but feel the answer would annoy me or scare me. Genzou seemed fond of those particular emotions.

"It's just a form she chose long ago," said Yue dismissively.

"So, is she actually a cat?"

"Not in the way you mean." Yue paused again, and considered me once more. "Genzou is the spirit of _'the futures that might be', _she isn't a being so much as a concept, like time or space. She has the form of a cat because she chose it of her own will for her own reasons. Without it she is nothing but an idea."

"Right," I said slowly. So the rat chose to look like a rat? Why would anyone want to look like that? I'll have to think about it more later. "And what about Mouretsu?"

"He was the last Incarna to rise to full power before dying at the hands of Yasuragi; he is the spirit of a Gel-Hassad-"

"Whoa, wait," I started. "He's a Gel-Hassad? I thought he was an Old One?"

"No," said La. "He was the _first _Gel-Hassad Incarna, but he was no Old One."

"Does that change anything?" asked Yue, sounding genuinely curious.

I thought about it for a second. "I don't think so, I just never really thought about it."

"Fair enough," said La with a shrug of indifference. "Now, back to why you haven't been annoyed by catnip lately."

"Catnip?" I laughed. I have to remember that one. Maybe this guy wasn't so bad?

"Yeah," he smirked. "You think you're the only one she pisses off?"

"I suppose not, she does have that kind of a personality."

"You two are frequently distracted by passing shiny objects, aren't you?" asked Yue, hand on a cocked hip. She turned to me, her smile all but gone in seriousness. "Sokka, you haven't seen either of them lately because you don't want to see them."

I thought about that for a second, just to see if it would make sense in a minute. It didn't "Um, what?"

"You are a spirit shaper, a powerful one at that – or at least you will be, and Genzou and Mouretsu are both pure spirit energy entities. You don't have completely control over them, they are much too powerful for that, but you can easily keep them away from you if you wish."

"Really?" I asked, barely able to hope.

"Yes."

"Oh, thank the gods!" I praised as I fell back into the squishy chair in relief. For several seconds I just basked in the strange sunlight, my relived breaths puffing out above me.

La laughed. "Well, he seems happy to hear that."

Although La seemed to feel it was fine to let me revel in my little victory over strangeness and insanity, Yue had other matters to discuss. "Sokka, you should know that Genzou's been looking, quite frantically really, for a way to get into your head. She says she needs to speak to you."

"Why?" I spat, just thinking about her made me feel dirty and crispy. My soft chair suddenly got a lot less comfy. Why the hell did she want to get into my head for. I don't want to see her let alone have her _in_ my head, whatever that was supposed to mean. It didn't sound pleasant.

"Kid, you seem to be fucking with the fabrics of reality," La said joyfully.

"I – what?" I asked, the feeling of complete confusion must have shown because Yue pitched in.

"Genzou is the keeper of the future, she is supposed to be able to look over the infinite complexities of the future and pick out the most likely possibilities."

"And she's never been wrong," La crowed gleefully, "until now!" I was really starting to like La. Anyone who hated the furball couldn't be all that bad.

"How's she wrong?" I asked eagerly sitting up. I knew it might be a little mean, but I couldn't wait to laugh over Genzou's mistakes.

"She foresaw two possible futures, and she was as sure about them as she ever was. But then you started gaining power and she got crazy, screaming about the universe being reordered." He looked a little _too_ happy at Genzou's misfortune's, like he had something against her. One more point in favor of La. "Whatever you did almost drove her insane. Do it again, please?"

Yue clicked her tongue and smacked La in the shoulder as I reveled in the awesomeness that was me. Oh yeah, you don't try to burn the Sokka unless you want him to 'reorder' you something fierce.

"Okay, so they don't see me unless I want them to, Genzou's losing her mind; all good things." I counted off on my fingers just to get a feeling of all the happy things going on. Yeah, it was a little evil. But after having do deal with everything I have in the last little while I challenge anyone to act differently. "Anything else I need to know?"

"There is a little more," said Yue solemnly, her smile falling faster than a cat in barrel over a waterfall. Okay what's this about, a minute ago we were joking around; why so serious?

"We got a few helpful hints on women for you," La smirked. "We both know how stupid guys can be about your age; after all I was one of them."

"Oh," I mumbled. "Yeah Suki, Toph and -" I stopped and looked up at Yue, unsure how I should end that sentence. La shifted slightly and he shared a look with Yue. Hm. Interpreting women's cryptic gazes had never been my strong suit.

"Oh?"I asked, hoping she would elaborate. Only, something felt a little off.

"It's complicated," Yue said delicately.

"Uncomplicated it then," I said in my own direct way. The little nagging feeling I have been getting at the back of my head for the last couple days nagged harder and my thick skull started to put it together. Yue cocked her head to the side and looked into my eyes. There was something there… deep within her an alien being looked out at me like some kind of insect. It took all of my will not to growl as I felt the hair on the back of my neck starting to rise.

"So," I said, barely aware that the ambient temperature was going from cold to a heck of a lot colder. "You've decided to wear the face of someone I love. Drop the seeming now, or this might get ugly."

"It isn't so simple," her voice answered as it shifted into the same kind of dual harmony I'd only heard from two other people: Aang and myself. Her blue pupils were gone now, and the off-white of moonlight shone in their place. "It's me Sokka, but… not."

I stood up from my chair very slowly, leaving my hand on the armrest for a moment longer as I stared hard into her eyes, pulling away layers of reality. Yue was in there, somewhere. But, she wasn't alone. There was another presence in her, someone alike; someone tied to her somehow, but not her.

I walked forward slowly. My breath came short and shallow as I delves deeper into the Void, the green script crawling across my vision again. I was painfully aware of La's eyes on me as I stopped a few feet from the woman who was also Yue. I frowned deeply, focusing my sight into levels deeper than most understand or even believe in. I suppose it was kind of like how I saw gel-hassad blood inside Toph, only purely on a spiritual level.

I looked deep into her glowing eyes. No, they weren't glowing exactly. They were shifting back and forth between a pale blue and a light purple so fast that added with the natural moonyness she was projecting they appeared to be a gleaming white.

I pushed deeper, as gently as I knew how until I seemed to be looking upon their very essence. It was enormous and complex to a maddening level. They stretched out in ways that would drive a regular human insane just by looking at them. Whoever Yue and this other entity were, they were timeless, beings of the very earth itself; a part of the natural flow of the universe. I followed each strand of life, trying to decipher where Yue was inside this vast chain of links. There seemed to be pieces of her everywhere, but so intertwined within the other that even I couldn't figure out where she truly was. Maybe if I was smarter or possessed more of the Incarna power I would have had better luck; but I didn't, so what I understood was limited.

Yue and whoever else that was in there, were once one. They seem to have split somehow – oh! The moon. One of them was the original moon spirit. Yue had told me that she had been given a second chance at life by the moon spirit when she was first born. I looked harder, and knowing what I was looking for this time, I found the split where the moon gave a minuscule fraction of itself to a small sickly baby. But what the moon spirit had not counted on was that the infant Yue possessed the power of the Dreamer. The blue white and yellow white lights of the Dreamer and Lunarsa crossed each other like a tangle of threads that made a terrible mess. Even from here, I could see that the Weaving Dreamer was a powerful spirit being in its own right, so when Yue died and returned to the moon the Dreamer part of her clashed with the moon spirit. They'd begun to integrate a little, but this was... a giant mess. It made the world's largest ball of yarn look neat and orderly.

They were fighting one another on the spiritual level. The moon spirit was trying to merge with the smaller part of itself in Yue, and the Weaving Dreamer in Yue was fighting this. The two spirits fought one another, causing a lot of pain as the two sides ground together. They were wearing one another out, but the moon was the moon; a huge part of the universe itself and Yue was but the Dreamer. As powerful as the Weaving Dreamer was, it was an aspect, a shard of Dream Itself. Much like the Avatar spirit, one of the shards of the Ger-Ghanim wasn't enough to overwhelm a God. But it was doing it's damnedest to fight a rear-guard action. I slowly pulled away, my mouth that never stopped silent for once.

I had to do something about this or else Yue and the shard of the Weaving Dreamer would be crushed by the moon and the moon would be damaged by the desperate shard of the Dreamer, trying to keep itself intact. Both of these things were bad; one on a very personal level and the other on a global one. But how the bloody hell was I supposed to stop two great spirits from fighting like this?

"I'm a small part of something much bigger," said – Yue? Another name brushed at my mind, but it eluded me. "It's only because I was so important in restoring the Moon that I've lasted as long as I have."

"It's quite a strain maintaining your will as an individual in the face of such a thing," La said with a dark smile. "I would know, after all."

I didn't know what to say – ha, too bad Katara isn't here to gloat about this momentous event. What do you say to someone who is trying not to be swallowed up by the moon? I sighed deeply before wanting desperately to just fall back into the chair and think for a while. I rubbed my eyes hard, trying to get the weird feeling out of them. They tingled quite a lot. I guess it had to do with the – another word came to me, soul searching. "I'm sorry I got mad at you. I guess I'm just a little jaded to spirits right now."

"Sokka, I just want you to know that I meant every word I ever said to you. It wasn't some kind of game, that was me, just not all of me," Yue said softly and alone in her voice. "I'm very complicated and if you'll just listen I know – we can -" She stopped, seemingly lost for words and wrung her hands.

"I know," I said softly, meeting her eyes again her. I smiled slightly – after all what else can you do? "I won't pretend I understood half the stuff I saw, but I do know your telling the truth." I stopped for a moment as something surfaced in my mind. I blushed slightly in embarrassment. "And, uh, I'm sorry I soul searched you without your permission. It was intrusive of me."

The next thing I knew I had arms around me, very light slightly staticy arms. Her whole body seemed to be buzzing with some sort of energy; but I guess when you are a being made up completely of spirit essence you get a little buzzy. "Your forgiven."

"So," I asked after a moment. "What are we going to do?"

"We've tried everything we can think of," said La as Yue pulled back and looked away as she fixed her hair and rubbed her eyes. She was pure energy, but I guess a girl still wanted to look her best even when she could look anyway she wanted. And some habits from life were hard to break. "We have to admit that there was a selfish reason we were happy yo hear your call."

"Oh?" I asked, thinking I knew where this was going.

"Yeah. You see – well she's the Moon also, anything we can try wouldn't have enough power to separate them and not destroy the earth. Tui is too closely linked to the flow of the planet. So -"

"So, you want me, when I get my power to try something?"

"Basically," he replied, with the decency to look sheepish.

A thought struck me. "Why don't you just go get one of my predecessors? For that matter why can't I talk to one of them myself?" I asked, more to myself then anyone else.

"Because their in another dimension of the spirit realm; the realm of the dead," La said, getting a fake teaching voice on. Yue rolled her eyes at me even as her lip picked up into a small smile. "There are three realms. The realm of the gods – the divine realm I suppose you could call it. That's where we are right now, although we are on a fringe. Next is the neutral realm the acts as a buffer between the divine realm and the realm of the dead. The Archive and much of the old one technologies and magics work themselves in there. A few of the more minor gods who do not have the power to exist in the divine realm also stay there. And then there is the realm of the dead, which none may access unless the are destined to be there; not even most of the gods."

"But, Aang talked to Avatar Roku all the time," I protested. "Heck, the old bat's been around so much that I almost have a sense of his personality."

" Well, yes. But that was always under special circumstances. Times of great stress or circumstances. And they essentially share the same soul so they have an unfair advantage of having a rope to follow. You can also talk to some of your predecessors, at least we think you should be able to." La paused for a moment. "What I mean is that _you _might be able to talk with them since your one of them and share a strong connection. We can't because we have to follow the normal rules of the realms, and besides, they wouldn't have any power."

"What? Why not?" I asked. Roku and Kiyoshi had their power when they – no they didn't. They used Aang's power. Yasuragi too, it was the only thing that saved me.

"Because only their spirits go there, the power of the Incarna passes on to another living soul. It's one of the questions that plagues the Avatars. If we are reborn again and again into this world; are they their own people or are they are simply echoes of the one that came before them? Do they have souls? Will they go somewhere when they die or just cease as the soul rebirths?"

"You might want to talk to Aang when you get back too. He's been asking himself these same questions since he found out he was the Avatar," La said sympathetically. I squinted at him a little; something was up. "Anyway, the soul is the sum of its experiences and actions. When you or Aang pass on what makes you_ you_ will separate from the source and move on; the power goes to the next host and a new person begins to grow."

I felt my face grimace slightly. "You could have just said that. All that other explaining seemed overly complicated now."

"Don't blame him," Yue said in a slightly tired voice. "He just wanted a chance to lecture you for once.

Whoa, wait, that set off alarm bells. I focused on La as suspicion fell. "What do you mean 'for once?'"

If I had expected them to look guilty or caught I was disappointed. Yue just smiled at me again in a calming manner – dammit it was working again – and La looked like he was going to explain.

"Okay Sokka, think of it this way, why was Yue able to get through your bubble of spirit energy that keeps out catnip?"

"Because I trust her, I know she wouldn't try to lie or hurt me."

"And I never would," she said, he voice not wavering once.

"Alright, fair enough," La said. "But what about me? How did I get in here?"

I opened my mouth to say something, but the words stuck in my throat. How _did _he get in here? If what they said was true – and I have no reason to doubt it – then I must trust him. But how could I trust a man I had never met before? Although he _did _seem familiar. A memory from deep within, from somewhere long ago stirred.

"What do you remember?" he asked softly, trying not to break my line of thoughts. My eyes closed in concentration as I tried to hold onto the vague memories that bubbled up. They were fractured and incomplete, but they seemed to tell a story I felt like I had heard before.

"I remember," I fell further into myself. "We knew each other a very long time ago, and I also remember ... no, that's impossible."

"What is it?" he prompted.

"I remember, us, flying across the sky," I said as images flashed past. "We rode on the backs of huge beasts, skating across the sky on a trail of pink dust."

"Yes, what else?" he prompted softly, standing motionless as Yue stood silently beside him, lost like me, inside her memories.

"I was like I was now, a scion of the Incarna, but I had never heard of the Incarna or the avatar before. It was thousands of years ago,_ tens _of thousands of years ago, even before the Great War. The world was constantly fighting with itself, not just the people upon it but the spirits and gods as well." I noticed that somewhere in my remembering, I linked to the Archive to try to piece more of it together. The information that came to me now wasn't a painful rush like I had been expecting, but a tiny trickle. There wasn't much recorded about the world then. The old ones of that time were still just figuring out how to use their archive, and so they were putting more thought into how to restore the balance of that damaged world then storing data. It was all a patchwork of random sensations and flashes of memory.

"The wall between the Spirit world and the living world was falling, spirits were falling though and," I stopped again as horribly accurate recording of cites falling to formless spirits haunted my minds eye. "The spirits were going mad the moment they entered the living realm. The forces they experienced when falling through the tears was too great for their minds. If they had only waited they would have regained their wits after a few hours but ... but they were terrified. There were creatures they had never seen before running and screaming all around them. The humans looked as fearsome to them as it to they. The humans attacked in fear and the spirits defended in terror."

I began to see through the eyes of one man. I felt the creepy wetness of being born, the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes, and his brother. I was watching his life just as I had dreamed of the lives of the Incarnae that had come before me. I remembered his big brother playing with him on a strange board he got from his father for his eighth birthday.

I jerked back as memories of war and blood began to flood my mind. I had seen worse in my dreams, but their was something personal about this one. I fought in a squad with a, small girl? She was not human. She fell though the tear and someone decided to use her to fight their war. I shivered as I remembered the first moment she became truly conscious. The first spark in her eyes, the first tears that fell as she tried to understand three crying children, one but a newborn with a deep gash in his head. And then I remembered standing over her, my alien weapon held limply in my hand as she became hysterical standing over their dead mother who she had killed just moments ago. My own heart ached even now as I remembered her begging me to help her gather the children. She had never asked for anything before, she had barely spoken or even shown a glimmer of emotion. And now she was shaking and crying holding the torn off sleeve of her uniform over the babies bleeding head.

I helped her that day, how could I not? Something deep inside me told me to help her, told me that it was part of who I was to help her. Back then, millenia before the great war I nor the avatar had come to the realization of who we were; at least not as we are now. But I knew what was right. That night I gave my squad the choice to either join me in flight from the government or to stay behind. They all followed me.

I fled in a ship, taking our flying beasts with us. We fought the war as best as best as our morals could figure, defending those who needed it. The little girl I had known grew and continued to care for those children as though they were her own. Over the years they even took to calling her their mother. When asked later the older one seemed to know she wasn't the one who gave them life, but she loved them and cared for them and to the younger ones she was the only mother they knew.

And then...

And then she met him. We had ... crashed near some little town and one boy had made her smile. Although she obviously loved the children, she was still ignorant about so many things. I wasn't sure when it had happened but I had become protective of her. I remembered watching them. They flew together and he seemed to want to be close to her. She was still learning and I didn't want him to take advantage of her. But I had laughed when I walked away from them one time. He was just as clueless if not more then her about most things.

We fought many battles and met many people. We tried our hardest to clean up the disasters caused by the tears. We brought food and medical supplies to the wounded and got out of there fast when the government ships came. For nearly a year we fought and ran and helped people as best as we could. But it wasn't enough, the world was still falling apart and it was shredding me with it. I knew there was something I could be doing, but I couldn't understand it. In my nightmares the words echoed; Void, Incarna, the Avatar, the old ones. But I didn't understand, and like any dream they faded when I awoke.

The old ones we're doing their best to try to mend the world, but they were forbidden from making direct changes that might make the humans aware of them. It was part of their deal with... someone.

I had known for many year what the girl was; what she was a part of. But everyday the idiot-boy seemed to becoming more important to her. He was her closest friend and I was afraid that he would push her away if he knew. But he was told, and he didn't care.

Finally everything came to a head. We barricaded ourselves inside a monetary of people devoted to protecting the balance of the spirits; the early monks of the Avatars I believe. The government had been prodding these tears, trying to widen them; trying to figure out how to control them. They were trying to make weapons out of the spirits within. Foolishness. Such terrible foolishness.

My – his brother had made a deal with an old one who was defying everything. That old one thought they should rule the world, not sit on the sidelines. He thought that if they humans were only eradicated by being lead to kill themselves off, the old race could take up their proper place.

It was this old one who cultivated the madness and fighting in the spirit realm. He twisted the human world in ways that caused the conceptual gods to fight among themselves. He pitted them all against each other and as their battles grew they drew in other beings and soon their was only war on either side of the spirit wall. Gods were cast out of the spirit realm through these tears as the endless combat of the eternals spiraled out of control.

He broke the harmony; cast one concept out of the divine realm and everything starts to fall apart. The little girl I had grown so attached to flew into one of these tears to try to close it. She was trying to bring an end to the death, but she was incomplete. She was only one side of the equation, her other half had been captured and twisted until it broke and faded away into nothing. The world was incomplete. The universe was broken and there was nothing we could do to fix it.

Until that one idiot decided to follow her in.

I bought them time in the only way I knew how. I flew my ship into the bridge of the enemy vessel. I survived the crash and confronted my brother. The fight we had severed whatever bonds we once had. In the last moments the twisted old one stepped into this reality and tried to take control. But his brethren apprehended him and pulled him back.

In the tear the idiot did what he did best. He found out that the one he cared for; his best friend in this world and the one who mothered three orphans was actually the spirit of the moon. She had been cast out with the oceans and without their souls the psychical manifestations of both began to die. She wept once more, the first time since she held the small bleeding babe in her arms and tried to push him back into his own realm, telling him to live his life while he still could. But he couldn't. His heart; the heart of an unknown Avatar would not let him. He took the place of the missing spirit and became the oceans.

I jerked back violently, almost careening over the back of the chair I had willed into existence a few minutes and a life time ago. This time, unlike the times I had watched the past Incarnae's lives, I had been awake and conscious. I groaned and held the sides of my head tightly. It hurt to have another life crammed forcibly into your head in the space of a few moments. I stood up and swayed for a moment before a pair of hands grabbed me. "Ow," I groaned. Okay I think I like the clip shows when I sleep better. At least then its only the highlights.

"Are you okay?" Yue asked. She sounded worried, but I couldn't bear to open my eyes to check yet.

"Yeah," I said, rubbing my temples. "Just had an overload."

"Yeah, you starting out describing it all. Then you just started flinching and couldn't seem to talk anymore." I guess it was La who was holding me up... wait. La, the spirit of the oceans? Oh my fucking god!

"You're the bloody Avatar!" I shouted leaping back from him, instantly regretting it as my head throbbed again. I grabbed it again but managed to keep one eye on La as his mouth dropped.

"Damn, you're starting to scare me now too," said La, looking honestly surprised. "I didn't think you'd remember enough to piece that together.

"And you're human!" I said, my voice a lot quieter this time.

"I was." he admitted. He didn't seem regretful or look like he was caught. Maybe he was planning on telling me this.

"But how?"

"Everyone, even humans can spirit shape, you figured that out yourself," La said. "Is it really that much of a stretch that a human managed to merge with a Greater Spirit?"

"I suppose not," I mumbled, still a little stunned. I opened both of my eyes again and shook my head slightly, testing it to see if it would blow up again. "But, how are you you if Aang is you?"

La laughed at that one. "For a smart guy you can sure be confusing sometimes."

"You know what I mean soggy," I spit back. I didn't want to think too hard right now, even just talking was painful.

"I told you before, only the power and sometimes the base morals pass on, sometimes not even that. I am me because I was the Avatar_ only _because I had the spirit. My soul split with the Avatar's when I died becoming the new spirit of the oceans and it passed onto the next incarnation. I was born of the avatar spirit, but I was my own man. Get it?"

"I guess," I said slowly. "So your kinda like me. Two souls, one you and one the power?"

"Little different but close enough," he conceded with a shrug. "There was a bit of divine intervention there. I was stuck on this side of wall; made it easier."

"Are you okay?" asked Yue from right ext to me as she held a hand to my head.

"Uh, Yue?" I asked, letting a little grin rise. "Aren't we both just souls right now? How would I have a temperature?"

"Cheeky little boy," she said pretending to be offended, but I could see the relived little smile on her face.

"Okay," I started, trying to get my stride back. Ouch my head. "So I let you into my little bubble of fluff protection because you were once the Avatar and I knew you. Alright. So what about Yue?"

"What is one demi-god to another?" La asked with a raised eyebrow. "Sister I suppose."

"Good," I said. "One less complicated relationship in my life; hey, that might be a first!"

Yue laughed with a few tears leaking from her eyes. They shone like moon drops as they fell to the snow, and her eyes resumed their normal light blue color. I felt the harsh chill of the Void recede and La became visibly more relaxed as it did so.

"Moving onto less stressful topics, I hope," I joked. "Since you have lived more than once and were the close friends of a past Incarna, and let's not forget Gods, can you tell me what to do when I meet the spirit? Because Furball and Mouretsu keep telling me to either dominate it or let it take me over. Which is right?"

A sour look crossed both of their faces as soon as the words were out of my mouth. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No, Sokka, it's just that I can't tell you," Yue said. I felt a little bitter that she would keep this from me, but I supposed she had a good reason; I still didn't like it though, and something of what I felt must have shown on my face. "It's not that I don't want to tell you, it's just that the memories have been taken from me."

"Okay," I replied with a sage expression. "I don't understand."

"Not too long ago now, just after I rejoined with the part of myself that died at the north pole a man came to us in the spirit world. He was a Gel-Hassad and he possessed much more spiritual power then any individual aside from the Incarna should have. He attacked us before we could prepare, taking both of us by surprise with his skill. Before we could even begin to fight him he bit into us and ate our memories of the Incarna all those years ago."

I stared at her; I even think my mouth was open ... for a very long time. "He_ ate _your memories?"

"Yes," said La. "I'm sorry Sokka, but we cannot help you with that."

"He ate them," I said again, still hung up on that. "He_ ate _part of your mind!"

"We're fine now," said Yue reassuringly. "Since we are also pure spiritual beings it didn't cause us any damage other than forgetting a few things."

"That's just messed up," I said aghast. "Did you ever figure out why he did it?"

"Yes, and that's one of the reasons we needed to talk to you."

"He called himself the Master," La said. "And since he only went after our memories concerning the Incarna we think he's -"

"After me," I finished. "Oh, this is just brilliant; now I have a mind cannibal after me."

"You can make a joke about anything, can't you?" asked La incredulously.

"It is how he deals with being afraid," explained Yue

"Well, he must be afraid all the time."

"Bite me, drippy," I snapped back absentmindedly while most of me was thinking. "Oh, son of a bastard."

"What?" La asked while Yue just told me to watch my language.

"I think I might have finally gotten a piece of my grand puzzle."

"Now what the hell is that supposed to mean?" asked La, thoroughly confused looking.

"There is this man who I have been calling the 'shadow man' for lack of a better name, and he is messing around in the Gel-Hassad government thingy, recruiting people of both races and, well he pretty much started the war between the Fire-Nation and the rest of the world."

"And everyone that matters still thinks that the Fire-Nation orchestrated it, huh?" La asked, but Yue just considered me carefully.

"They think so too, but they are being toyed with and puppeteered just as much as the benders, maybe worse because they 'know it's all their idea'."

"So, what does this have to do with the Master?"

"Their leader, the 'shadow man' has thousands of men and women of both races passing him information and serving him, voluntarily or not; and on top of that he has at least some of the Jenkotsu in his palm; and the biggest threat to him, the worst thing that could happen would be -"

"The rise of the Incarna alongside the Avatar," gasped Yue. "Your shadow man is the Master."

"That's my theory at least," I admitted. "And he has to be powerful to be able to enter the spirit world and to take a bite out of two Elemental Gods Brilliant. Is there anything else about him you can tell me?"

"Not really," Yue said. "When he took the information about the Incarna he also took everything we knew about him other than vague impressions."

"Brilliant," I sighed. "Alright, aside from the brain eater, is anyone else trying to kill me?"

"Well," started La, smirking mischievously. "I know one little powerhouse that's about to kick you where it hurts if you don't get a clue sometime soon."

I thought about that for a second, and got nothing. "What the hell is that supposed to mean? I will kick you in the water goblet if you get all mysterious with me."

"Damn boy, how many water puns do you have?"

"Spew a few more riddles, you dried up puddle and find out."

"Boys, put them away before I cut them off," threatened Yue, her voice dark with promise, La and I immediately shut up and covered our bits with both hands. "Better; now, Sokka, the Master aside one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you was because of the conflict you are having with the women in your life."

"Alright," I said somberly, remembering that I still had to have that very difficult talk with Suki.

"Now, it would not be proper for me to come right out and say anything; but honestly, you are very blind sometimes."

"I'm not that bad," I said defensively.

"Sokka, one past stupid boy to another; yes, you are," La added.

"I called you 'Idiot-boy,'" I corrected and was met with another surprised look from La. I smiled weakly at him.

"Firstly," Yue continued. "Suki is inside Ba Sing Se right now. It's your decision, but you should be able to find her within the hour if you ask Haiyahi for help. Secondly, when you next see Toph, think deeply about your feeling to her, but most importantly think about what you would do to get her attention if you were to act." Yue stopped, and looked deeply into my eyes for what seemed like an eternity. I shifted uncomfortably beneath her gaze long before she continued. "Think hard on her reactions also, ask yourself, 'what would cause _you _to act in the same way'. Got it?"

"Yes," I said sharply. Wow, that wasn't creepy at all. Suddenly the snowy world I had created around us started to fade and shudder along the edges of my vision.

"Ah," La said, looking around at the shifting world. "It looks like you're reaching your limit for keeping this world together."

"Wait, you still never told me your names from your life before," I said desperately. It was something very small, I know, Yue would always be Yue to me, but I felt like I should know. The world darkened around me and I could barely make out Yue or La anymore. A sudden shift in the snow and black revealed two figures to me.

"I am Yue now," she said. She was still the girl I met at the north pole, I could feel that, but now she looked a lot different. It was a face I remembered, a face I once had. This was the face of the woman she once was, with her unconscious seeming up. She always had that seeming up, for her entire life she never knew who she was. She only learned of her heritage and her powers when she died saving the world "I will be Yue until I split and rejoin again into a new person, so please continue to use that name."

Next to her La stood tall and strong, his thick brown hair blowing violently in the wind. I could remember flying across the sky in a white skinned beast, him laughing the whole way. He raised a hand and waved a momentary good bye. I knew that I would see them many more times, so it was just for now. The wind pulled hard on his white and red jacket and I could remember that his grandfather had wanted him to become a mechanic as it was the family tradition – but then he went and fell for a God.

My newfound sister smiled widely at me, her purple eyes almost closing. I felt the undeniable force of her power as we looked into one another. All that was human about her was such a tiny fragment of the whole. But even staring into the light that framed both of them, and the terrible inhuman will behind it, I smiled. I had the vague sense that it would destroy anyone else who looked upon them like that. But I could- strangely for all their massiveness I felt no smaller. And as I looked into the face of Gods, the name returned to me; the first name to match the first face.

"Later Holland," said La.

-

**Interlude: Hakota**

The crisp night air felt good on my face, a relief from the constant stress of the day. The ropes creaked and the sails rippled in the light wind as I blew another puff of this white pipe smoke into the starry night. We had a few close calls today, and the weirdness didn't seem to be letting up, even on this beautiful night.

I always liked sailing, the smell of the salt water and the feeling of moving along under the strength of my own mind and muscles. It was a kind of validation. The thing that told me I had a place in the world, at least before Kya told me she was pregnant with Sokka. The day he was born I felt like the entire world just stopped and I was standing there alone, just me and my son. I thought I could never have a moment anywhere near that again, even if I lived forever, but then Katara came and I stood with her in that pocket of emotion and love once more. My children were my validation, they were the greatest things I have gifted upon this earth and I desire nothing else. They were my legacy, my memories of Kya ... everything that mattered.

I took another long pull on my pipe, well actually it was my father's pipe – he would have killed me if he ever seen me smoking it. The smoke rolled over my tongue and filled my senses, and for a moment I could almost feel my father standing next to me in the smoke. I wondered if Sokka would ever do this. I knew I would not live forever, and I can't help but think that he might one day stand like me; smoking this pipe and remembering his old man in his time of doubt.

I stared out over the black mirror of the ocean and wondered about where I was to go next. I bit down on the pipe, my teeth finding the same groves that my father had made years ago. I was the chief of the Water Tribe, a title I hope to one day pass to one of my children. I almost chuckle thinking of my little Katara leading our people. She did have the heart, and even though there has never been a female chieftain before I have no doubts that she would be able to do it. She was so much like her mother that way.

What was a chief to do for his people in a time like this? The Fire-Nation had almost won this war, there are only a few remote pockets of resistance left. I tapped the pipe on the railing, tossing the spent tobacco over the ledge before refilling and relighting it.

About seven hours ago we were sailing across the open ocean en route to Ba Sing Se, there was a resistance movement going on there, one of the only ones left. The rest of the world has fallen, what can ten Water Tribe battle canoes do to an army the spans the world? I had the captains of each ship talk to their crews and get a boat by boat take on their feelings; eight boats wanted to head to Ba Sing Se, one wanted to continue onward to Fire-Nation territory and one wanted to return home to our families. After carefully weighing all of their thoughts and suggestions I decided that we would try to make contact with the resistance.

Seven hours ago we had been sailing for three days already, making good speeds for the desert city – we would have to abandon the boats on the shoreline and walk the rest of the way to the gates. And then someone decided to point a spyglass behind us.

We had fought many battles in the last two years, but never had we faced so crushing a feeling of imminent death. Some men wept for their families that they would never see again, two men had to be confined to quarters after they had breakdowns. The rest of us readied to face the full force of nearly forty ironclad Fire-Nation airships. We were ten boats with pretty much nothing to throw at an airship; let alone one jacketed in steel plates, but we would fight anyway; if only because there was nowhere to run in the center of a calm ocean on a clear day. We would fight and die because that was the only course left to us.

I stood at the wheel of the lead ship, ranks of men lined up on the deck, marble faces among silence. We stood tall and brave and waited for death to collect us. The airships were an hour out, and I couldn't get my mind off of my children or the memory of my wife. I stood, my hands frozen on the damp wood of the wheel and just remembered; I remembered the birth of my children, the first time I laid eyes on Kya, the first time we shared a bed, the first time I held my baby girl, the first fish Sokka ever caught. I stood at the wheel. My hands were steady. Every face in sight damp or lost – we blamed the dampness on the non-existent swells.

And then the Airships passed over us, countless faces stared down at us over the railings in hate or wonder; but no fire rained. I don't think any of us could have done anything but just stare as they flew on into the distance. We followed them with spyglasses until the sun made that impossible. They seem to also be making a direct shot for Ba Sing Se. No doubt to also make contact with the resistance, but with more malicious intent.

I blew another puff of smoke out into the night air just as I heard footsteps coming up behind me. I put the pipe back between my teeth and turned around slowly. I looked over the other ships in the formation and found a face here or there also watching me with a strong intensity.

"Hakota," Bato started, but then he stopped, unsure how to continue. The two men behind him – Touse and Dando; deckhands– both seemed uneasy, Touse's tea mug even shook slightly with nerves.

"What is it?" I asked softly, trying to prompt some sanity to come of this night. "There is nothing you could possibly say right now that would make this night any stranger."

"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure about that old friend," he chuckled. I smiled knowingly at him for a moment and he seemed to rethink something. "Well, I was just at a very important meeting."

"At a very important meeting in the center of the ocean?" I half-joked.

"Yeah," he said carefully, a lopsided smile finding its way onto his face. "I want to tell you. I really do, but I can't. At least not right now."

I nodded slowly. I wasn't too surprised; Bato's family along with a few others seemed to have a great many secrets. They had arrived on a few small boats from the north and begged asylum. My father – then the chief – allowed them to stay on a trial basis; and over the years they eventually became our neighbors and trusted allies.

Bato thought deeply, marshaling his thoughts. "We all have the highest respect for you Hakota; you have protected our families as though they were your own, even being blind to our past, and for that we will be forever grateful. But something has come up." He swallowed hard and straitened up a little. "We will always be in your and your fathers debt for letting us stay in your village in our time of need, and mean no disrespect to you or any of the southern Watertribesmen, but our loyalties have been pulled elsewhere."

I mulled that over calmly as I took another puff of the pipe. "Can you explain further?"

Bato paused for a second, only a second and to the evident surprise of the two behind him he continued. "We must make our best speed for Ba Sing Se immediately, even if we do not move with the rest of the Watertribe, even if we must sever all ties with the tribe." I was surprised to hear this and it must have shown on my face. "Hakota, if you feel you must exile us for this, know we will go willingly and without resistance. We will understand."

I took the pipe out of my mouth and frowned deeply, there was much more to this than what was already on the table. "I will not exile you, any of you. You gave your lives to protect us just as we did for you. But if you need to break away from my fleet I would like a fuller explanation."

Touse and Dando both seemed to think the conversation was over and were turning back to the hatch to return below deck, but Bato held my eyes. "Have you ever heard the legend of an equal to the Avatar?"

The reaction was immediate, Touse whirled around and looked absolutely aghast at Bato, like he had just proclaimed his allegiance to the Fire-Lord.

"Y'eth ne'v j'han veleth nor?"Dando shouted in an unearthly fluid language, a mix of fear and anger in his voice. The strange thing was that his eyes were on me the whole time.

"Nor thoth na ilim,"Bato replied, the same liquid syllables coming from his mouth. "J'neth na sil in'ta adum."

"Veth na solen ta!" screamed Touse, "No velem na koth se."

"You know it's rude to speak in a language not everyone present knows," I said gently, not wanting to cause more of a fight.

"I am sorry, old friend," Bato said with a tired sigh. "But my two companions fear that our people's old customs would demand our deaths if we tell you anymore."

"Thoth na venem!" Dando, still glaring daggers at the back of Bato's head as he was facing me politely.

"We will speak the man's tongue in the presence of Hakota," Bato said flatly, turning to the two still shaking and sweating behind him. "Unless you would like to explain to the Incarna why you were so disrespectful?"

"Man's tongue?" I questioned, making Dando glow red with anger and Touse to sputter; but Bato just nodded.

"Another thing I am afraid is best you do not know."

"Can you tell me anything to convince me that this isn't some kind of mutiny? I want to believe you Bato, I really do. But you're not making it easy."

"I understand," he said slowly, thinking. Quite suddenly he seemed to come to a thought and faced me grimly once more. Somehow I got the feeling that his two buddies would not like this very much. "We are not able to be loyal to you because our loyalties now lie completely with your son."

I was right, the duo looked about ready to chuck Bato overboard. But they weren't my main concern right now. All of this might just be starting to make sense. I tapped out the burned remains from my pipe and refilled it again. Holding the fresh puff for a few seconds longer I stared off into nothing while the three men before me got into some sort of arguing match, Bato the only one talking in a language I knew.

"Did I ever tell you any stories of when Sokka was really young?" I asked, my voice still a little distant. The three men before me stopped their arguing, although Touse and Dando both looked at me like I had just lost my mind.

"Some," replied Bato. I smiled at him, my first and oldest friend.

"Kya and I were so worried about him for the longest time there. We thought there might be something wrong with him. It took him till he was almost three and a half to start speaking." I took another puff of the pipe, letting the smoke blur my vision again. "For the longest time he seemed to be trying to learn how to speak, you know how babies babble and go on making sounds at nothing. But when his second birthday and Katara came along we were really starting to worry."

"Katara actually started to speak first, she was only eleven months and she could already sort of toddle around on her little pudgy legs and say a few words; we were so proud. Sokka would follow her everywhere, almost like he was watching over her. If something was out of her reach he would get it for her, if she got hurt he would hold her. We think it was Katara that finally got him to speak. Only a few words at first but he picked it up so fast it was like he knew all along how, but just didn't."

I bit down on the pipe, finding those old teeth groves as I delved deeper into my memories. "Bato, do you remember me always trying to get Sokka to play his games around you. You know the ones. He never did, did he?"

"No," he admitted, clearly unsure of where I was going with this.

"He used to stare off into space like he was listening to something, or move around in the most peculiar patterns, not even minding his surroundings like he was following something. And then there were that weird baby babble of his. It was so strange. I was always so amazed by it." I took another long draw on the pipe, preparing myself to tell the story truthfully for once. "You can imagine my surprise when I first heard you and your families talking in the same language."

Dando seemed to lose the ability to speak and the shattering of Touse's mug was almost comical. Even Bato seemed to be gone. "He spoke the Old tongue?"

"I suppose if that's what you want to call that language you were just speaking," I conceded. "I remember him calling me _vethen_ many times, almost like it meant Dad." I was right judging from the continued shock.

"Even when he started to speak he always seemed to be elsewhere," I continued. "I remembered being really confused for a while. He always talked about a dog. But whenever I brought the sled dogs around for him to play with he was never interested. So finally Kya decided he just liked the word and told me to put it from my mind. But I never could."

I took another puff of the pipe and released it out into the dead silence that now rested around me. I took a deep breath, steadying myself to relive one of the worst memories of my life. I met Bato's eyes and received a nod from my oldest friend, the man who stood by me and helped me through the death of my wife, and even helped raise my children. The man who held my total trust even if he couldn't explain everything. And if he said he was more loyal to Sokka then he was me? Well, that didn't make a lot of sense. But I could live with it.

"Did I ever tell you about the night I almost lost Sokka?" I asked Bato. Dando and Touse forgotten fixtures.

"No," he whispered, apparently numb from what he had already heard.

"It was late, and raining," I started, staring into the red glow inside my pipe. "I had been out on one of our patrols that night, watching for any sign of Fire-Nation activity and I was on my way back. Sokka was four then. He could speak, although he still gibbered a lot. Anyway, that night, like a lot of nights he had waited up for me. I was just leading the boat in as Kon was gathering up our supplies when I caught sight of Sokka standing on the docks like usual, practically bouncing up and down as he tried to wave to me.

I took another puff of the pipe. "It was a hot summer that year and the edges of the ice were thin, so very thin. There was a loud crack . It even caught Kon's attention; and Sokka fell into the water." I paused for a moment, a terrified shudder running down my spine. "I dove into the water before he even started to thrash around. I had taught him how to swim, but he was only four and he panicked. He went under before I got to him. For nearly twenty minutes I searched the dark waters for some sign of him. All of the men who jumped in after me had already given up. Even Kya who had come running, little Katara in her arms, was sobbing hysterically thinking she had lost her son. Some of the men even tried to pull me up onto the bank, telling me it was too late. Telling me he was gone. But I couldn't believe them."

"I was diving as deeply as I could, trying to catch some sign of him when I saw something. At the time I had no idea what it was, but I followed it to the surface anyway; hoping that it was my son."

I took another long pull on the pipe, the suspense thick in the air. "I crawled up onto the ice far from where I had left the rest of the village waiting. I learned later that I had scared Kya into thinking that I dove down too far looking for Sokka and succumbed to the ocean myself." I put the pipe back into my mouth and bit down into the wood, my next words slightly slurred as I spoke around it. "The first thing I saw was Sokka, soaked but breathing, lying in the snow. His face was a little blue when I fell to my knees beside him, but after I checked him over I breathed easy again. As long as I got him somewhere warm soon I thought he would be fine."

"It was then that I saw his rescuer. I hadn't gotten a good look at him in the water but he was the only living thing in sight, so it could only have been him that pulled Sokka up onto the ice sheet. I meet his deep blue eyes and saw an intelligence I have never seen in any animal before. I was too stunned to speak my gratitude, but he seemed to understand. The white wolf almost seemed to nod to me right before it faded away. It didn't run away into the snow or anything like that. It just vanished before my eyes."

I blew out another cloud of smoke as the weight I had been carrying seemed to lighten. It sounded strange, but telling this to someone; someone who wouldn't think me mad was relieving. "We camped out on the ice that night. Both of us were too soaked to last the walk back to the village, so I managed to dig us a shelter in a snow drift and held him close all night to conserve body heat. When I walked into the village the next morning carnying him, still unconscious I couldn't describe the look of relief on Kya's face to you."

"For the entire first week we couldn't tear Katara from him. It was like she was afraid he would leave again. I don't think she really understood what was going on, but she no doubt saw he mother crying and her brother missing and formed some link." I blew another puff of gray smoke into the night air. "Sokka never mentioned that dog again or spoke in that strange language. Oh, he was still extremely protective of Katara and still acted the same, but it was like he had forgotten why. I don't have anything to prove it. But I think whatever that wolf did, or _had_ to do to save him cost him something. It was like the wolf was forced to sacrifice something that night, to keep Sokka alive."

I chuckled slightly. "It sounds a little crazy doesn't it? Me thinking all of this 'sacrifice' stuff concerning an animal I only caught a glimpse of? But if you had seen it… It wasn't just some animal, it was something more. Just _looking _at it you knew it was something much more."

"The Spirit," whispered Dando. Touse just stared blankly at me, not even aware of anything else, and Bato smiled the widest I have ever seen.

"It's really him," Bato said, awed. "I know everyone keeps talking about it but ... it's really him."

"So, are you guys with Sokka or against him," I asked, looking between Touse and Dando. I knew and trusted Bato, it was the other two I wasn't to sure about.

"What do you mean?" Touse asked.

"Well," I started putting the pipe back into my mouth. "I just got a little visit from one of Sokka's friends."

All three of them looked at me, clearly trying to understand what I just said. "Who?"

"About five minutes before you three came up a guy popped up out of the ocean and climbed on board."

"He what?"

I smiled. "A man _made _of seawater climbed up on board a few minutes ago. He said his name was Renton and told me that a couple of my people may approach me right away, but to be weary because there were some of these people who wanted to help my son and some that wanted to hurt him. So which are you?"

"Renton?" Touse weakly asked Dando, but Bato just started laughing, causing the other two to look at him strangely.

"Tui and La," he explained. "The Moon and the Oceans."

"The Ocean?" Dando said, almost terrified by the word.

"Yes," Bato said gleefully. "Looks like Sokka got himself some more allies."

"I hope you don't think I have the foggiest of what your all talking about?"

"Not to worry my friend, it is unimportant," Bato said stepping forward and holding out his hand. On instinct I reached out and clasped wrists with him. "Our families fled to the south pole _because _were on your son's side. You have nothing to fear." I smiled and nodded, receiving a nod and a smile in return as the small amount of lamp light glinted off of the white lotus Pai Sho tie Bato wore as a necklace.

* * *

_The Forum had been updated with "_**Hakota and the White Wolf**", "**Tui and La**"_ and_ "**Easter Eggs -the corssovers-**" _go and have fun... we'd love to see your take on things!_

**Th****e Jade Knight - Richard Caine - Kitty (M.I.A.)**

Please Review


	16. Man's Greatest Mystery

"Nyaaaa, now what have you learned?" asked kitty as she hammered the dents out of a jade helm.

A tinny voice came from within the helmet sitting on the work bench. Behind Kitty other people and furries were repairing various pieces of green armour. "Don't be late or people will hit you with a big flaming rock?"

"Good," she said, picking the helmet up to eye level to check for anymore damage. "Nya, good thing all you are is a suit of armour or this would be a lot harder."

"Yeah," sighed the helmet of the Jade Knight.

In the corner of the room a crowd was milling about, various pointy objects aimed down at something. A part in the bodies shows two leafy green gauntlets typed away on a keyboard.

"Poor Richard, you can't just put him back together." The Knight was saddened by the demise of his co-author, it meant he had to do all the work now.

"Nya, we never found him," said Kitty as she placed the helmet on the table and picked up an forarm.

"What," asked the helm. "Were is he, he was there when I was hit."

"We know," kitty replied. "But when we dug down all we found was you and the word 'Coatoan' carved into the stone."

For a moment the helm was silent. "You know, I have no idea what that's supposed to mean. But I'm scared."

"Nya, you should be. You, nyaa, should be."

-in case you dont know 'nya' is the sound made by some cats in japanese anime-

* * *

Alright... chapter 16 here. Seventeen is with Richard and I'm working on 18... so not too shabby I say. Hope they have me built before long. My hands get awful sore with no arms to support them.

-Jade

* * *

And thank you to all the reviewers! We just crossed over 300 reviews! whoot! a personal record!

-thanks again

* * *

**Sokka: Master of the Black Sword**

Author: The Jade Knight

Co-Author: Richard Caine

Beta: Kitty (A.K.A. kathykatinahat)

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**-The Resistance Saga-**

**Chapter 16**

-

The Story of Sokka

Man's Greatest Mystery

-

I sat down in the main seating area of the Lotus Garden and just stared off into space, the jasmine tea cooling in my hands. I was still thinking about what I was going to say to Suki when I saw her. And since Yue said that she was inside Ba Sing Se, that could be as soon as hour from now. I raised the cup to my lips and took another sip, allowing the hot liquid to distract me for a moment.

I suppose some guys might try to hold off on telling Suki that it wouldn't work; maybe keeping her as a fall back. I pulled a disgusted face. I could never do that. It was dishonorable and cheap. She could never be happy with me and she should move on as soon as possible. I wanted her to have a good life with someone who cared for her. I took another sip of the tea and went back to my thoughts.

"I was woken up by the most interesting dream," said Piando-sensei as he sat down across from me. "Seeing as you are also up and fully awake might I assume you also had one?"

"Yeah," I sighed, staring into my cup. "Although I could think of a few other words to describe it."

"Such as?"

"I dunno," I replied as I took another sip from the tea cup. "I was just trying to make a point."

"I see," he answered as a waiter brought over another cup of something steamy for Piando. He thanked them and we were alone again. "Yue said you would need to speak with me right away."

"Oh?" I asked, looking up for the first time.

"You have figured out that she is one of your Ger-Ghanim?"

"Yeah, meeting her in a dream kinda tipped me to her being the incarnation of it."

"And did you also converse with La?" he asked delicately.

"Yes, we have a lot in common, such as not liking little kittens," I chuckled.

"Hmm," he said taking another sip of tea, looking like he wanted to add something but deciding against it.

"And I could use your help."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, Yue said that you would be able to get me face to face with Suki within the hour."

"I can," he said, taking another sip. "Is this what you want?"

I sighed deeply. "I don't want to do it, but it's something that must be done."

"I see," he answered smoothly, taking a sip of his own tea. "I can arrange it if you want?"

"Yeah," I said, feeling a little queasy as the dreaded conversation drew closer. "What time is it anyway?"

"It is four thirty in the morning," he replied.

"Wow, I'm up early." Considering I had only gone to sleep three hours ago I expected to feel a lot more tired.

"Indeed."

I took another sip of the tea and let my thoughts chase themselves around my head. Thoughts of the world and what it meant to be one of the Yang. To be an equal to the Avatar and a savior of the world. "Piando-sensei?"

"Yes, Sokka?"

"I've been thinking," I said, but I was unsure how to continue.

"Thinking is almost always a good thing," Piando replied. "I assume you have something you wish to discuss with me?"

"A couple of things really," I admitted into the swirling tea.

"Sokka, not only am I your advisor, teacher and one of your people. I would like you to think I am your friend; meaning that I am well qualified to help you though anything you wish to share with me."

I nodded, looking back up at him. "Thanks," I said. "It's just that I'm supposed to be this great being; someone who everyone is going to look to to lead or do what's right."

"But?" he prompted.

"But, I can't help but feel like – like ... I'm not doing enough," I said, my voice straining. "Look at me right now. I'm sitting in a Pai Sho parlor sipping tea thinking about how I'm supposed to deal with the women in my life. The entire world is being slowly destroyed by the Fire-Nation, who is being controlled by some brain eating psycho calling himself 'The Master' and his band of merry Jenkotsu, and I'm thinking about _bloody girls!"_ The anger finally had found an outlet and was rushing out. People were staring at me now, but I didn't care. I leaned forward, slamming my hands onto the table, not even realizing when I had stood up.

"What the hell kind of leader am I? Not a bloody good one, that's for damned sure!" I wanted to say more, let more of what I was feeling out, but I couldn't put any of it into words. My mind was so jumbled with all of these memories and glyphs and other spirit shaper crap.

"I can't even think, I've got so much jammed into my head!" I shouted, jabbing the side of my head with a tense finger. "Right now I can explain to you what the Third Nova Gel-Hassad division were supposed to be doing on the battle field the morning of the Last Battle. You want to know how the armorers made the I-09 incestoid battle armor and endo-chassis? I have no fucking idea what the hell they are but I could probably draw you up a schematic!"

"Oh, and do you want to know the greatest thing?" I laughed almost maniacally. "What the hell is this supposed to be?" I shoved my arm out in from of me. My wrist tingled telling me it was working and then right before our eyes my hand seemed to slip into the world, bending _away, _disappearing into nothing.

"Yeah, _what the hell is this_! Do you know? 'Cause I sure as hell don't. Whatever it is I did it to my whole body when I was fighting Yasuragi and somehow I moved over a kilometer and a half instantly. I was playing with it before I came down here. After all the Moon, who just happened to also be the Incarna from before the Great war, mind you, told me I was scaring the crap out of everyone because I was so strong. What is this? I can only do this to my hand so far, but really?"

"And that's another thing." I quickly drew my sword from over my back and held it out. "Mind telling me how my sword _eats fire_? Hmm? You made it. You should know, shouldn't you? Or you could help me with any one of my other problems. Like why I'm terrified my best friend, the man who's pretty much my _brother, _isgoing to let out the psycho Avatar and she's going to kill everyone including Toph, Katara and me?"

"Or how about this one? Genzou and Mouretsu, yes _that_, have each been telling me to either dominate or submit to the Incarna spirit. Now, I got some info from the Archive telling me that if I submit the spirit will consume me and burn my soul and all that other crap. But it felt wrong, like the information was not quite from the Archive. Is it possible to intercept and manipulate the information coming from the Archive?"

"But that's not important, what is important is that I have the concept of the Future and the spirit of a dead Incarna who helped to destroy one of the continents each telling me to do something different, and if I side with the other guy the world will die. But it's all right because I'm here sitting with you _drinking tea thinking about how I'm supposed to tell Suki I can't be with her and tell Toph that I really care about her!"_

I stood there for a long moment, trembling with suppressed rage and who knows what the hell else. My eyes stung with tears of emotion that I did not understand and I was having a hard time breathing. I closed my eyes, blocking out the world for a few seconds while I tried to get some sort of control over myself. My heart beat hard in my chest, feeling very cold and large for a moment.

When I finally came back to myself and the frustration boiled itself down a little bit I realized what I was doing, and where I was doing it. I looked over the rest of the parlor, at all of the people now staring at me. And I realized _what _I had just been shouting.

"Oh, shit. That was stupid."

"Don't fret Sokka," Piando said kindly, unworried. "There is a great many things that you must be told about the White Lotus organization. But that is for another time; right now just know that you are among comrades and although we may be a little surprised by some of what you just said, we would never betray your confidence."

"I – uh," I mumbled, as I took in all of the faces turned to me. One by one they acknowledged me either with a raised glass or a nod and returned to their games and tea.

"Your tea is getting cold," Piando-sensei said, taking a sip of his own. "Please sit down."

"But," I said weakly, "I was yelling things ... about-"

"Sokka," said Piando, pushing my teacup a little closer. "You are among friends and allies. None of us will utter even a whisper of anything you just said. You're safe. Now, a very jolly general once told me that jasmine calms the nerves. Why don't you have a little?"

Still eying the rest of the people in the room, I picked up the chair that I had knocked over and very slowly lowered myself into the seat. The scraping of china on wood drew my attention back to the cup before me and I gave in and took it, letting the warm tea sooth my nerves.

The clock on the wall ticked along happily with the clicking of Pai Sho tiles until my cup was empty and one of the waiters brought me another one. "Feeling better?" asked Piando when I took the fresh cup.

"Yeah," I said, shame burning on my cheeks.

"Don't worry over much about it Sokka," he said. "Being the Incarna, even a scion is a very difficult thing; succumbing to the pressure only means that you are human."

"I suppose," I mumbled into the fresh cup.

"No, Sokka," Piando said, his voice strong and deep. "No, not suppose. Accept, or do not. There is no middle road."

I crawled up out of my tea cup and let a weak smile slide onto my face. "Then, I guess ... not."

"Honestly is the first step to anything. Now, let's look back on some of what you just said."

"I was ... angry," I admitted. "I shouldn't have taken that out on you. I'm sorry."

"It's a good thing that you are speaking in definites, but you are wrong. I said I would like to consider myself both your friend and teacher, and as both of those things I am well equipped to help you when your burdens become too much for you to bear."

"I'm fine. You don't need to help."

"Spoken as a one of the Yang, or Yin for that matter," Piando said with a little bit of a smile done only with the eyes that most Gel-Hassad favored. "Always trying to convince everyone around them that they are perfectly fine and not sharing the weight even as it's crushing them."

"No," I started. "I'm fine, really. I just-"

"Sokka, do you know what I discovered 'fine' means?"

I frowned. "I don't think so."

"Frantic, insecure, neurotic and emotional."

"An acronym?" I asked, chuckling.

"Indeed," he answered. "A rather clever one too I think."

"Makes sense, I suppose." Piando looked pointedly at me and a grinned back. "Alright it _does _make sense, there. Although isn't neurosis a mental disorder? The others are things that come and go. Neurosis is an illness.

"I'm still working on it."

"Hmm."

"Let's move on, shall we? Firstly your biggest issue right now seems to be that you believe yourself an incompetent leader, someone who is not doing enough." I nodded my agreement. "Sokka, you have a great many responsibilities but you are looking at it all wrong."

"But, there has to be something more-"

"What you will learn is that there is _always _more you think you should have done; or differently, or better. Believe me when I say that there will always be some small thing that eats at you, that you think you could have handled better. But nobody is perfect, not even an Incarna at the height of its power."

Piando took a sip of his tea, and put it back down on its coaster. He folded his hands before him and seemed to be mulling something over. "Sokka, you may not believe that you are doing enough, but in all reality you probably won't _ever _be doing enough. It's just the kind of person you are. But you must understand that you can only do so much, that no one is infallible or perfect. That even the Yin and Yang are still just people."

"I understand that," I sighed. "I just feel like I should be doing something for the world. Like at the very least I should be planning how to free Ba Sing Se from the Fire-Nation if not out there fighting right now."

"Sokka, that kind of thinking will only get you killed, or at the very least break your mind. You have the soul of a true hero, and that is commendable. But if you think you can hold the entire world on your shoulders you will only harm yourself as well as everyone you're trying to protect."

"I'm not ... too sure I understand."

"My point is that even if you become akin to a living god in terms of power, there will still be only so much you can do. No matter how powerful or strong you are there will always be some people that you cannot save, or thing you cannot do. Trying to be everywhere at once, and trying to be everything everyone wants you to be will only lead to self-destruction."

I thought on his words for a moment, staring into the swirling liquid of my tea. "I understand your logic, but I don't think I believe it."

"Time unties even the most knotted of minds," he said sagely. "I am sure you will gain peace of mind soon if you just talk about these things more." I smiled sadly, unable to shake some of the feelings. "I don't think me sitting here giving you one adage after another will help anything. But I have experience in being depended on, and although it isn't near in term with being the Incarna I'd like to believe I have enough experience to always have an open ear."

"Thank you," I said softly, feeling a little better. "I'll remember that."

"Is that a promise? No more containing everything?"

"Yes," I replied smiling, "it's a promise."

"Good," he said, with a cleansing sigh. "Now, I'm afraid I cannot help or even understand several of the things that you say plague you. But I can help you better understand a few of them. Starting with- yes, I know how your sword consumes fire."

"Really?" I asked, amazed. I had just been venting. I never suspected he actually knew what was up with the fire-eating.

"Yes, like you said; I made it, I should know."

"Alright," I said slowly. I was actually bristling to know how it had done that.

"The steel it is made of is very special."

"I'd say, we got it from a meteor."

"Indeed," chuckled Piando, "but where did the meteor come from?"

"Uh, the sky?" I offered, not really understanding the question. "It set fire to a whole bunch of dry grass when it hit."

"Sokka," he asked, leaning forward slightly. "I know you have made contact with the Archive and most likely it deposited a vast amount of information into your head. In all of this information do you have anything pertaining to the history of the black steel?"

"The Hassad Yavim?" I asked slowly as images and memories flashed before my mind's eye.

"Yes," he said smiling. "You may know that the black steel was one of the weapons that Mouretsu used to overpower the much stronger benders. Now, do you remember where all of the ore was kept?"

"The city in the stars," I answered immediately. "We kept it all up there after Yegoth fell to keep it from falling into the wrong hands. We were afraid of provoking a second great war."

"Yes, many of my ancestors-"

"Wait," I said quickly coming to a realization. "Do you mean that thing that contacted me when I went all frosty and asked me if I'd like to it announce my presence to the world?"

Piando-sensei's eye brows rose, which was the Gel-Hassad version of his jaw hitting the floor. "A-announce?"

I put on my best cheshire grin. "Yup, it seems humans can hold a lot more power than everyone else thinks."

"Intriguing," he said, considering me carefully.

I just grinned right back, holding the stalemate for a few more seconds. "Anyway," I prompted.

"Ah, yes," he said, seeming to regain himself. "Yes, that's what I meant. And the city functions as a lot more them simply an announcing system."

"I got that from us storing all of the black steel there."

"Saving the history of the city for another time," said Piando. "I had a strange feeling for several days before you arrived on my door step. I couldn't pin it down but it was like the most important moment of my life was approaching."

"So, you knew who I was as soon as you found me?" I asked.

"No, but I had my suspicions. Especially after the city made a report in the Archive that it had delivered nearly two tons of the Hassad Yavim to the Incarna upon request."

"Request?" I asked dumbfounded. "I didn't ask for it. The damn meteor just fell from the sky all burny and whatnot."

"Oh?" he asked, taking another sip of his tea. "What were you thinking and feeling beforehand?"

"I was," I began, "I was thinking that I was not strong enough, that I was dead weight. I wanted power, something that I could use to help Aang, Toph, and Katara with. They all have these amazing powers and all I could do was chuck a boomerang around. I felt inferior."

Piando put his teacup back down with another eye smile. "Wait," I said aghast. "You mean that city thing picked up on my feelings and threw boulder of the black steel at me?"

"It would appear so."

"But how is it reading my mind?"

"The same way that you should have mental access to the Archive even though you have never been there. The rest of the People must stand before the Archive to retrieve anything. You need only access you Incarna abilities. The Archive is, at its foundation, the mind of the Incarna. Just as much as you own brain or the spirit are."

I sat there, not really sure what to think anymore. All this stuff has been coming at me so fast I hadn't really had time to fully absorb any information before the next thing hit me. But now, I finally began to feel like I was something impossible, something beyond any other human.

_Feelings of inadequacy._

_'Oh, don't be sad little demi-god,' says the City. _

_-plop-_

_'Hey a black rock!' says me._

I rested my head on the table for a minute until things decided to stop feeling so strange.

"Sokka, are you feeling unwell?"

"Yes," I replied. "But, keep going."

"Alright," he answered to the top of my head. "When you brought me the Hassad Yavim I knew you were someone very special and I forged it into the sword you now have. The steel had the potential, but unless I conditioned it properly it would not be able to do the things you speak of. So in other words, it was I who caused your sword to be able to 'eat fire'; an ability _you _activated.

"Sweet," I grumbled into the table. "Now that I have a few answers could you arrange my meeting with Suki? I'm sure I can screw that up before breakfast if we work fast."

"Don't worry Sokka," said Piando as he got up, patting my arm as he did. "Things always find a way to seem worse than they are; just give it time."

-

I jerked awake an hour or so later. I yawned deeply and looked around. I was still in the Lotus Garden- the clicks of tiles and the chattering of a few dozen conversations washed over me. I had been having the strangest dream. It was full of strawberries and people in the most peculiar robes. I chuckled a little as I picked up my long cold tea. It wasn't too bad cold either.

I frowned- something was different. I was forgetting something important. I could almost feel it scratching at the back of my mind. What was it? I stared hard into the bottom of my tea cup, demanding answers from the dregs.

That was it!

My face fell in surprise. It couldn't be. It was just a dream; right? But wasn't my meeting with Suki and Yue also just a dream?

I reached forward very slowly, the teacup still clutched tightly in my hand. I felt the familiar tingling and then my hand shifted to wherever it was that it went when it wasn't there anymore. That felt the same, but now I didn't feel that sudden stop when I got to my wrist. My forearm started to disappear also!

I jerked my hand back, a little frightened by what I had just done. Great; just freaking great. I finally start getting a few answers and crap like this starts happening again. Sometimes I really hate the world.

"Ah, you're awake," said a voice behind me. I turned and looked up into Piando-sensei's face. "Since you were up so early I thought it would be fine to let you rest up a bit. It's been about an hour. The sun should start coming up just about the time we arrive, assuming that you still wish to speak to Suki."

"Yeah," I said, my voice still a little groggy. "How are we getting there?"

"We're going to be walking."

That stopped me for a moment. "Wait, she's within walking distance?"

"Indeed," he replied smiling. "It will be a ten minute walk at a leisurely pace. We can set out as soon as you like. Your companions will be informed of your side journey and given a pleasant breakfast."

"So I jumped the great wall; a wall that encompasses the largest city in the world. Not to mention dozens of little towns, cities in any other environment; and I drop right in the middle of everyone that effects me?"

"It would seem so," Piando said gently. I could have answered in a great many ways, but I didn't; it just didn't seem worth the effort.

"Alright," I groaned, getting up. "Although just once I'd like to have something ordinary happen, just to feel nostalgic."

Piando chuckled as we crossed the parlor and stepped out into the street, lit by moonlight and spark rock lamps. "I can understand the feeling."

-

Interlude: Suki

Part 1

Footsteps echoed down the long hallway as Suki made her way to the mess hall. She had been woken up by the most ... disturbing? Strange? Depressing? It seemed to be a dream that was all of these and more. She yawned deeply, careful to keep the shawl around her hair. She had stayed the night at the hotel, seeing as she was seeing to her 'sick mother'. It was an easy excuse that pardoned all of her absences from the Fire-Nation palace when she was reporting in here. They had even gone so far as to enlist the help of Gigi, the kindly old lady that helped with the filing in the basement, to play the role of the sick old lady who loved candy the few times they had to throw off suspicion.

Suki pushed open the royal blue double doors and walked into the quiet room. She had woken up hours ago and had spent the time trying to get back to sleep. But it seemed that sleep eluded her – she was just too wound up from the surreal dream. Being careful to maintain a slight limp, she made her way over to the buffet line. It was normally not worth the effort to make enough food to fill all of the aluminum trays except for supper, as most everyone worked as hard as possible and only came for food when they had to. So the rest of the day the few chefs worked to order.

Although it was early – five o'clock in the morning according to the clock on the wall- there was a hand full of people at the tables and the two chefs behind the counter seemed to be preparing for the breakfast rush that usually started about six.

"Hello miss," said the sleepy man in the chef's hat as she walked up. He had black bags under his eyes and seemed like he just wanted to get to sleep. He must have been the overnight guy. "What can I get for you?"

"Just a bowl of hot cereal and a glass of orange juice," she said, making sure to add a few years and a slight rasp to her voice.

"I'm sorry we're out of orange, but we do have tea and beer left."

"Just the tea then," she answered. It seemed like they were beginning to run out of supplies again. Must be almost time for Arc to make another food raid. They would have loved to pay for the food, but when an underground resistance movement was trying to stay secret it was best not to draw attention to themselves by buying enough food to feed a small army in the bazaar.

Footsteps came up behind her and she turned slowly, making sure to make it seem like regular curiosity. Heh, speaking of the metal head. Arc gave her his usual twisted grin which she returned just slightly. "Hello, miss," he said politely.

"Good morning sonny," she responded, staying inside her 'old woman' role. She liked the guy fine enough now, but he had taken some getting used to. At first he seemed really closed off and even colder than Red May – if that was even humanly possible. Sure, he seemed to have always meant well enough but there were always just so many things about him that seemed just a touch off. And she didn't just mean the scars, although they had taken some getting used to as well. It was just that he always seemed so defensive.

The first few weeks she had known him he had been friendly and talkative, but it always felt just a little forced, and he always seemed to be reading every move of those around him. It wasn't something you could point at and shout 'See!', but it was definitely there. It was almost as if he didn't trust anyone; like he was just waiting for them to attack. He never jumped or seemed skittish, but you got the feeling of nervousness whenever you came close to him. Finally he had seemed to settle down and had begun to make a few friends such as Smellerbee – she never understood why that girl called herself that – and Longshot – another really strange name.

Suki took her tray when it was passed to her. Nobody paid for the food they took from the kitchens. They were all part of the resistance; fighting in one way or another, so it seemed ludicrous to people to pay for the food. But Kami help the man who threw out even a mouthful. She slowly ambled along, limping her way through the maze of long tables to one that was backed against the wall. It was a little hard to eat 'in character,' so she needed a little warning if somebody decided to sit next to her.

She was half finished with her hot cereal, some cream of wheat stuff that tasted horrid, when a tray was set down across from her. She started slightly, forgetting where she was – if anyone with hostile intentions would have made it all the way to the mess hall it sure as hell wouldn't be quiet.

"Mind if I sit here?" asked Arc as he remained standing, giving her the chance to refuse.

"Yeah, sure," she said, waving him onto the bench. He sat and started into his bran muffin, white rice and cucumber sandwich. Suki tried and failed to suppress and giggle. "Mister four eggs, half a pig's worth of bacon and a mountain of wheat toast is eating a cucumber sandwich?"

He smirked around a bite of said sandwich. "Yes, I have to get the men together for a food run before lunch. There is enough for breakfast for everyone; they will just be interesting."

"You don't say?" she asked in a mocking tone of voice.

"Yes, I do say."

"Hmm."

"Yes."

"Indeed."

"Rightly so," he finished with a lopsided grin, his blue eye twinkling in the lights. He chuckled as he went back to his food, his scars pulling tight as he opened his mouth. Suki just sat there for a second before she returned to her own cooling food. They ate in silence for a short time before it was broken again.

"There is a rumor going around that we got another militant division?" Suki asked, making conversation.

"Yeah," Arckon replied. "I am going to meet with their leaders this morning to see how we can work them into the resistance."

"Who are they? Or is it too secret?" Suki asked, knowing she only had a level eight clearance and Arc was one of only four who had a level nine; Smellerbee, Longshot, Arc and the mysterious Iron Titan. Level ten was Red May's eyes only, no arguments.

"Hmm," he muttered, seeming to try to gauge whether or not Suki had access, while she pondered _why _heneeded to think about it. At least until she remembered that not many people were comfortable being near him, let alone asking him for privileged information; she was probably the first to ask him on this.

"The Green Dagger Special Forces," he finally said, before turning back to his food. Suki just sat there for a long moment, the ticking of the clock and the subtle sounds of Arc eating the only things within earshot, until...

"The Green Daggers?" she hissed as loud as she dared. Everyone knew who the Green Daggers were, either as horrifying enemies or allies, depending on who held sway over the city. She had expected some generic name followed by a string of numbers that would mean nothing other then moving the conversation along. Hell, she understood the need for the secrecy, as they no doubt still had a few moles; they couldn't have the information in the wrong fiery hands.

"Yes," he said in an offhanded voice, not even looking up.

"Why are you telling me?" she said quietly, leaning close. "I was looking for small talk and you tell me the name of our newest secret weapon? What if I get caught? I could tell them everything!"

"You would not."

"What if Azula got me?"

"She would not ask the right questions," he said, still not really paying attention.

"How do you know?"

"Because you are strong; you would never tell them who you were really reporting back to so Azula would never take a personal interest in you, thus the secret is safe in you even in the unlikely event that you are captured." Suki was a little surprised by this answer; it seemed thought out and a little flattering, in a strange sort of way. But hey, look at who she was talking to.

"Plus, I trust you." That one caught her completely off guard. This guy trusted very few people, even she knew that. So far the only two she could even _suspect _held his trust were Smellerbee and Longshot. There was no doubt in her mind that he didn't trust Red May at all. But now he was telling her that he trusted _her_? Now she was really confused.

"I didn't think you really trusted anybody," she said doubtfully.

"Hmm," he replied, considering her. "I do trust, I am just careful about it."

"Alright, say I buy that," she said, "Why me, though?"

"You have never told me anything but the truth, and you have only lied to others within the resistance when it was under express orders from myself or Red May. Honesty and loyalty are what trust _is_, and you have both of these, so you also have my trust."

Her breakfast forgotten, Suki thought this over. It was true that she only lied when outside the resistance, but was that all that it took to gain his trust? It seemed too ... simple. It was almost innocent.

"How do you know that I don't lie to you?" she asked. It wasn't asked deceptively as some might, implying that she did in fact lie to him, but out of curiosity.

"Nobody can lie to me," he said, speaking in a factual manner while looking up to meet her eyes. Some might find his broken gaze disturbing, but she found it friendly, as he intended.

"Everybody lies sometimes, and most will do more than that," she said.

"That is true," Arc answered. "But I can always tell."

"How?"

Arckon smiled. "Trade secret."

"Oh, tell me," Suki begged, using her best 'cute face'. But although she could have sworn he blushed slightly, he shook his head.

"I cannot, I promised never to tell anyone. Besides, it is impossible for me to teach it to you."

Suki tried to pout – using the same cute face – before she got over it. "Can Red May lie to you?"

"No," Arc answered before his face got a little sour. "Although she can lie using truths just as easily."

Suki looked at him with a critical eye, thinking over it all. "I don't think I believe you."

"Oh?" he asked.

"Nope," she answered. "What if you only think that you know when people are lying to you. It's a lie, so no one is going to correct you if you don't call them on it."

"I see," he said slowly considering her. "Alright, a test then. Use all of your skills, pretend that you are talking to Azula herself and tell me a few obscure facts about yourself; one of them false."

"Okay," she said, gleeful to pull one over on the General. "My favorite colour when I was young was purple, and now I can't stand it. I have never tasted whiskey but I like Icewine. The toenail on my left big toe grows faster than the others. I never had a real imaginary friend but I pretended I did for a few months when I was six. I think pineapples look freaky and I tried to learn how to use the bow a few years ago but couldn't."

"So, do you like whiskey?" he asked not missing a beat. Suki's jaw dropped. She had really tried to fool him. She was the _spy_; she lied constantly. Her life depended on it! And Mister tall, dark and grim picked out the lie right away.

"How did you do that?" she asked mortified, "could anyone in the Fire-Nation be able to do it too? I am so dead if they can."

"Do not worry," he reassured her, actually patting her hand. "No fire tosser could possibly learn it."

"Well that's good."

"Quite."

"Oh, don't start again," she complained. "Are you going to tell me how you did it?"

"I promised never to tell anyone," Arc said not unkindly. "Kagome?"

"What?" asked Suki, totally confused. What the hell?

"No," said Smellerbee as she sat down beside Arc. She had her own tray with some kind of green soup and a cinnamon roll. "Arc you have really got to get some more food, this is just a little bit gross."

"He called it 'interesting,'" Suki said, still a little thrown off by Smellerbee's sudden appearance. Suki was also mentally taking it out on herself for not noticing the girl's approach. Suki hadn't been in character when she had walked up; if it had been anyone else it could have spelled big trouble. She frowned at Arckon. The guy had never been snuck up on, at least not that she had ever seen.

"Yeah, interesting," grumbled Smellerbee before she ripped off a piece of the cinnamon bun and dipped it into the green soup. For a while they all simply sat and ate, making light conversation. Well, they spoke about upcoming battles and how best to destabilize the Fire-Nation occupation, but it was light conversation in that no more life-threatening revelations were thrown out there. Suki was very grateful, it was hard enough already to not let anything slip, to be conscious of everything she said without adding more to the mix. By the time the 'interesting' food was gone, Suki was just thinking she should start to get going as the clock on the wall said it was getting onto five thirty.

Her eyes were just starting to wander over to the double doors across the room when someone pushed them open. The beginning of the breakfast rush. She saw a couple people milling about just outside the room. She could make out the form of Kira, one of the head tacticians. Speaking to him was a man, just getting on in age who she recognized easily, but she seemed to be having trouble remembering his name. Arashi? Hyashi? Haiyahi? Yes, that was it. One of the grandmasters of the White Lotus organization. And beside him, facing the other way ... was...

Suki felt her heart constrict. She knew that back, that wolftail. The way he held himself and the way he moved were so familiar even if the dress and the sword were different. She was still unable to move as he turned and their eyes locked. For a single terrified moment she remembered her dream. His words and the promise to find her bubbled up from inside her, but she shoved them away. It was impossible, just a huge coincidence; a huge happy coincidence.

He smiled gently at her before turning back to Haiyahi. They talked for a moment before Sokka turned to Kira and gave him a short polite bow. And then he turned and walked through the doors, toward her. Suki could feel her heart pounding. How could he possibly he here? The last time she had seen him was just before the fall of the city.

He was about half way across the room, just starting to navigate his way through the tables when he seemed to falter. Suki was worried about him for a second. Was he hurt? But he just straightened up and continued on without a word. Only Suki could have sworn there was something strange in his eyes. It had looked like the black irises of his eyes had been filled with dozens of white specks, if only for a moment.

Sokka stopped just behind Arc and Smellerbee and gave a goofy little wave. "Hey."

"Hi," Suki said, still a little lightheaded.

"I am assuming you know him?" Arckon asked, not even turning around.

"Yes," Suki said at once, unable to keep a bit of a blush from her face.

"He's cute," said Smellerbee.

"Don't forget the unparalleled smart-making brain and modesty," Sokka smirked.

"A joker?" said Arc turning just slightly to see him. "I see."

"Suki, can we talk?" Sokka asked, the unsaid 'alone' apparent to everyone.

"Sure," she said. Then, careful to avoid any of the 'panic phrases' that would let the others at the table know that she was in trouble, "It's fine."

"I need to get ready for my meeting," Arc said before getting up and wandering toward the door.

"I guess I should go untie Longshot so he can get some breakfast," Smellerbee said casually, getting up and following.

"W-what did she say?" gaped Sokka, watching the strange girl leave. Suki just shrugged, as she was equally surprised by that.

"So, you wanted to talk?" she said, trying to move everything along.

"Yeah," muttered Sokka, still watching Arckon as he left. Once the doors close and the one armed man was gone from sight he sat down across from Suki. "Yes, there are a few things we need to talk about."

"Oh?" she asked, a prickly feeling running up her back.

"Yeah, uh," he stumbled. He didn't think it would be this hard to start a conversation with her.

"Are you okay?" Suki asked, a concerned edge creeping into her voice.

"Yes, I'm just not sure how to start."

"You can talk to me about anything, Sokka. You know that," she said, the little feeling getting stronger.

"I know, it's just really difficult right now," he admitted.

"Well, let's start off with something simple and see where it goes? Like how did you get here? I think I saw you with one of the White Lotus grandmasters, what was with that?"

"Well," he said, latching onto the new subject, "I got into the city with the rest of my little group and we bumped into Haiyahi last night and he offered to set us up for as long as we were in the city."

"A grandmaster of the White Lotus decided to put you up just like that?"

"Sort of," he answered. Leaning to the side slightly he reached into a pocket and pulled out a small white tile. "I'm sorry I can't tell you a whole lot about the why, but the short is that apparently when I was given this tile by a very important grandmaster I was initiated into the organization as a 'special case.'

"Really?" Suki asked, eyes on the tile in his hands.

"Yup," he said with a wide grin, "I even get free tea in the tea house."

"That's not what I meant," she laughed.

"I know, but it's true. Some of their tea is really good."

"Sokka," she said, drawing out his name, "be serious for once."

"I'm trying," he said honestly, his smile suddenly becoming strained, "but I'm very nervous."

"Why, what's wrong?" Suki asked. "Do you need help with something?"

"No, it's not like that."

"Then what is it?"

"It's," he started, but seemed unable to put his thoughts into words.

"Sokka, just say it," she said, somewhere between irked and concerned.

Sokka reached across the table and took one of her hands in his own, causing her heart to flutter. Then he looked up into her eyes with all the honesty he could mange and tried to find the words. "I think ... y-you need to try to find someone who can care for you properly."

Suki stopped, her mind rolling back, unsure of what it just hear. What had he said? It didn't make sense. "Sokka, what do you mean?

"I can't be what you need me to be," he said. His face was pulled taunt as he tried to make her understand. He was a smart man, but he was struggling with every word, trying to tell her without hurting her.

"What – no, I care about you, and I can't think of anyone better," Suki said. "Is this some kind of guilt over Aang's death? It wasn't your fault, denying yourself everything isn't going to help."

"No, it's not," he said, still fighting himself. "Aang survived."

"What?" she asked, surprised. "But-"

"Suki, he survived and this isn't guilt. What you need me to be is something I cannot be, no matter how much I try."

Suki was losing track of what was going on. Sokka was throwing one blow after another. The Avatar was alive? What did he mean 'can't be what she needs him to be'? Aang didn't die? And why did he seem so pained to be saying all of this? "Sokka, I don't understand."

Sokka leaned back slightly on the bench, still holding her hand comfortingly. "I don't think I understand most of this myself, and I'm not to sure at all what I will be – even tomorrow, but it's something that you could never find peace with."

"No," she said, gripping his hand a little better. "I care about you more than pretty much anything else. Whatever you think you are becoming, I can help you with it. This is a war, Sokka; everyone is changing, and you're not the first to fear it."

"This – this is something a lot bigger than that," he said.

"That what everyone thinks, but you just have to hold on. Let me help you."

Sokka saw that he was going to have to explain this a little better, but he couldn't tell her everything. His mind was full of memories of how this could go badly. He was to be the Incarna, the Yang to the Avatar. When you played on levels like that the easiest place for an enemy to attack you was through people who cared about you, who _knew _you. He would have to keep her as much in the dark as he could to protect her. But he knew he was going to have to tell her something if she was to be able to move on.

"Could you ever see yourself with someone like Aang?" he asked.

"What?" she said, her face pulled a look that told him he should have thought that one through a little more.

"I didn't mean that, I mean with the constant fights. He's the Avatar, he's going to be keeping the peace for the rest of his life. Hell, there have been twenty three Avatar's who died _in _in the last forty thousand years."

Her brow drew down when he said that. "How do you know that?"

Sokka swallowed hard. He damned all of the information floating around in his head. Couldn't it all just stop or go away or hibernate for a while? Too many more slips and this could all go feet to the sky. "Just a guess," he bluffed, hoping she bought it. "What I mean is could you see yourself with me if I had to fight in wars forever? Even if we stopped the Fire-Nation tomorrow I would always have to fight, always have to keep the peace – forcibly if needed."

"Sokka, you're not Aang, you never will be," she said, still looking like she didn't quite understand. "I know why you're thinking like this. You're loyal and he's like a brother to you. And if what I saw between Katara and him is still burning it could be a lot more literally soon." Sokka suppressed a shudder at that. "But you won't have to fight forever. I know and I accept that sometimes you will go off with him on some idiotic plan; I came to terms with that a long time ago."

"No, Suki. It's more complicated than that."

"How?" she challenged.

"I don't know how to say it," he said, his voice full of tension.

"Then just say it."

"I – I'm – Ugh!" he growled. Why was this so hard? He was supposed to be _smart_! He was supposed to have all of the ideas and plans. It was all up there in his head; all and then some. He could plot a thousand ways to steal the Fire-Lords_ underwear _but he couldn't even talk about this stuff to Suki.

Suddenly Suki's hand stiffened in his, her fingers that had once held his hand with affection suddenly turning ridged. He looked up at her, wondering what had happened, only to meet with a stricken look. "Suki, what's the matter?"

"There's another woman, isn't there?" she asked in a small voice. His heart stopped for a moment and his thoughts jumped to Toph unconsciously, and whatever supernatural sense women sometimes have clicked inside Suki and she could see the answer on his face.

"Suki, wait," he pleaded. But she pulled her hand back, his fingers closing on nothing but cold air as she stood up. She didn't move any further away then that; she just stood there, her watery eyes holding his like feathered steel. "Tell me it isn't true."

"No, please Suki; listen to me."

"Sokka," she said softly; she didn't yell, but her voice stilled him as if she had. "Tell me it isn't true." But he couldn't lie to her- he had come here to tell her the truth. A few tears started to fall from her eyes as the silence between them howled horridly inside their ears. Finally, unable to bare the pain of looking into his eyes – eyes that had once held the world for her – she turned and fled to the doors, desperate to get away.

Sokka jumped to his feet and tried to catch her as she past, to attempt to show her the truth. But she slipped through his fingers and walked hard to the door, the floor beneath her dampening with every tear-jarring step.

Sokka, using all the power of his mind, and unconsciously tapping into the Archive, ran through every thought he might have for the next three years in the space of a single millisecond. If he let her run now, he could break her forever. She had told him he was everything to her and, in another life she might have been the same to him. But here and now he had to break their bonds, but like fucking hell was he going to break with them. She was one of the people important in his life and he would protect her just as fiercely as any other. But what could he say to her? What could he say? He needed some way to tell her ... what?

Deep within himself, buried under all of the memories of bloodshed and war there lay a collection of peace. Recollections of walks by the light of a setting sun sat along with memories of loving someone and of the lessons that one learns. If you care about someone, you trust them to stand on their own. It's fine to want to protect them; it's also fine to act on that want. But you must let them stand on their own. You have to give them room to learn and grow without being suffocating, to let them make their own mistakes while standing just close enough to support them when they need it. He may not be able to love her like she wants him to, but she would always be important to him.

"When I walked into the dojo you were going though the seventh fighting sequence, the razor butterfly I think you called it. There were other girls in the room, most of them fully trained like you, but there was also another. She wore a tiny dress that looked lot like yours and she tried so hard to copy your movements." Suki turned to stone with her hand on the door, a single step from running away from him and everything he was forever. Sokka still stood exactly where he had risen, speaking in a normal tone that carried even as the streams of people walked into the hall around Suki, looking for their morning meals.

"She was only about three but she twirled her little paper fan with a smile on her face. She moved with your grace on small legs. She did better than on my first time trying to learn the fighting fan style. She'd fall and get right back up, over and over because she was dancing like her mother. She'd smile your smile and laugh my laugh and then you noticed me standing in the doorway."

Suki was breathing shallowly, afraid she might lose his words in her own gasps of surprise. Her hand remained raised, shaking slightly even as the door opened and closed beneath her fingers. A few people started to notice her standing there and asked her if she was alright, but she didn't hear them. She turned around slowly, her eyes still damp.

"You came to me, with Nani right behind you. She grabbed my legs and you picked her up. I was surprised to see you and you knew it, but we just talked for a little while. You said that I had been down at the docks with my fishing crew and Nani asked if we were still going for lunch."

Suki walked back to him slowly, like an animal ready to bolt at any sign of sudden movement. Sokka smiled sadly at her, seeming much older than the last time she had seen him. He met her in the middle of the room as people began to fill the tables, the bubble of conversation snatching the words from their mouths. Suki wanted to ask him how he could know this, but her mind seemed unable to even grasp the question.

"Suki, I'm – different. I'm not just some goofy guy anymore, I don't think I ever could have been," Sokka said quietly to her. "I was never playing a game, and I never lied to you, but I can't be what you need me to be."

"But," Suki started, still trying to find words.

"Suki, I walked into your dreams. I know it's hard to understand, but it really happened. You don't want to fight this war forever, but that's what I'm going to have to do. I'm a warrior Suki, and I'm going to be fighting for the rest of my life because I was chosen for something great. Anyone I spend my life with will also have to deal with combat for the rest of their lives, either just understanding it and being with me when the dust settles, or standing next to me in those fights. You don't want that; you could never be happy with that."

Suki was trying to understand what he was talking about, but it was hard. Her mind kept telling her what he was saying was impossible, but then his words came back and she felt a shiver as she realized he had actually been inside her dream. Sokka took her hands gently into his own and lead her back to the table. He guided her into the seat and let her think about what he said for a while before he spoke again.

"Suki, are you okay?" he asked softly.

"I'm," she said in barely a whisper before her voice gained a little more strength. "I'm having trouble – understanding what you're talking about. What do you mean chosen, and how do you know what I dreamed?"

Sokka managed a smile, "You know how I know your dreams. It was really me in there. And – I really am sorry that I can't tell you too much about what's happening to me right now. It's just too dangerous."

She still didn't understand what he meant, but she understood him; if he thought telling her might hurt her he would never tell her. "Alright," she conceded, knowing that she wouldn't get anything else from him right now. The next thing she knew his arms were around her in a comforting, but only friendly, way.

"I'm sorry I have to put you through this. You know you can always come to me for anything, right?"

"Yeah," she mumbled, closing her eyes as she felt her heart warm once more. "I know."

Sokka pulled back, still holding one of her hands in his own, and wiped away a stray tear. "I have to go soon. Aang and the gang need me." Suki nodded, not knowing what words she could say. Her entire world had been given to her, torn down and rebuilt again in a matter of minutes. "Can you do a few things for me?"

"Yeah," she said, meeting his gaze again.

"Be careful around that one armed guy," he said softly, his eyes boring into her.

Suki frowned. "Why? I trust him."

"He-," Sokka started, "It's part of this ... dangerous stuff, so I can't say exactly why. But there is a small sect of people who are helping the Fire-Nation, and he's a part of it."

"No, Sokka," Suki said, feeling a little of the tension flee as they touched on a subject she could get footing on. "Arc is on our side, he's one of the Generals of the Resistance; he would never do anything like that."

Sokka seemed to consider he words for a long moment before answering. "Alright, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt but still, just promise me you will be careful? I know you probably don't want to hear this, but nobody ever expects the double agents. That's their purpose. Just promise me you'll be careful."

"Okay, I promise," she said, understanding where he was coming from, but still pretty sure Arc was loyal.

"I just wish there was more about this stuff I could explain to you, really. It's just that --." Sokka stopped speaking entirely abruptly. Suki met his eyes, but he was looking past her to somewhere entirely different.

"Sokka, are you okay?" she asked.

It was another moment or two before his eyes focused, but when it did he had a small smile on his face. "Well now, that isn't weird in the slightest."

"Sokka?" Suki asked again, slightly worried.

"I'm fine, it's just that all of this stuff in my head finally decided to do something useful," he said, grinning as if he had caught the canary. "The Fire-chuckers are having some festival this afternoon, right?"

"Yes," Suki said slowly, not seeing where he was going.

"Well I just have a strange feeling that you should go, around four this afternoon."

"Why?"

"I dunno," he said gloomily. "I never really get step by step instructions about anything. It's pretty infuriating at times. But just show up, okay? I know I can't tell you anything about what this power of mine is, but if your there you'll see ... uh – something for yourself..." he trailed off, unsure of his own words. "I think?"

"You do know I want to hit you for being so vague," Suki said, a gentle smile on her face.

"At least you warn me," laughed Sokka. "Best I can usually hope for is to see it coming, but Katara is quick."

-

* * *

_-This chapter has been Beta-approved :)-_

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Jade Knight - Richard Caine - Kitty

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**Please review**


	17. Brothers

Ello there!

Not much to say this time. Chapter seventeen was delayed slightly due to a plot problem that has since worked itself out. I have 18 and 19 with Richard right now, and expect them back soon. I'm working on 20 and its going good.

-Man in the Jade Armor

-

_Hi guys, hope you enjoyed Valentine's Day...or Single's Awareness Day, as some know it as. As you can probably have noticed, the updates for the chapters recently haven't been as frequent- never fear, Kitty will take care of the Jade Night and Richard..._

_  
Enjoy the chapter! More Sokka fun-ness is on its way._

_~Kitty  
*Meow*_

-

The Jade knight looks over at Richard. "She's going to take care of us?' … The hell's that supposed to mean?"

"Hn," says Richard taking another sip of his umbrella drink.

"What the hell is that anyway … and why are you always drinking it." Jade's visor dips in suspicion. "You not drunk all the time are you?" Richard just sighs and looks out over the newly build battlement, at the small crowd of people beginning to congregate in eagerness for another update … or barring that; a lynching.

"I think I want to see what in that," Jade says reaching for the glass.

Richard raises an eyebrow.

Minutes later Kitty comes back up to meet with the two authors, holding her red correction stylus of doom and sees only Richard standing there, still sipping his drink with its little flower-design umbrella.

"Where'd the Knight go?" she asks.

"He got caught up in something."

Kitty looks at Richard for a time. "Is that a bad pun?"

"Could be," he admitted. Kitty looked around the battlement for the Knight, seeing as he had a tendency to fall apart sometimes … or fall down an elevator shaft onto a sword with 'update already' painted on it. He was ever so clumsy.

All she finds a single green finger trying to inch its way away from where Richard was standing. And across its width were dozens of little holes, each the perfect match to a drink umbrella stick.

stranger yet, the holes all seemed to match up to spell; 'Croatoan."

-

* * *

**Sokka: Master of the Black Sword**

Author: The Jade Knight

Co-Author: Richard Caine

Beta: Kitty (A.K.A. kathykatinahat)

* * *

**-The Resistance Saga-**

**Chapter 17**

-

The Story of Arckon

Brothers

-

"General Arckon, the Green Dagger representatives are waiting for you in conference room two," said the messenger standing before me.

"Good, please tell them that I will be with them shortly," I said smoothly as I expertly threaded the buttons on my shirt one-handed. I rolled up the right sleeve, folding it over itself repeatedly until it was at my shoulder, and pinned it into place. I looked myself over in the mirror and nodded.

First impressions were a very important thing, but in a secret war within a city sometimes it was the second impression that was more important. They expected to see_ both _of Red's generals; then that is just what they would get. There was a reason that no one knew they were the same man. I turned away and crossed over to the door that had closed only a moment before and left my room.

I walked briskly down the hall, polished boots clicking purposefully. The best way to be two people at once is to split their mannerisms, movements and speech patterns as much as you can. I turned a corner and passed a small group of people going the other way. A few of the polite ones pointedly looked away from my scars as they passed; some of the rude ones stared openly. Let them stare; this was the face that had seen more of this war then they should ever hope to. Let them stare, and know that every plan and skirmish I oversaw would be looked at with a veteran's eye, even if I was younger then most of my soldiers.

I pushed open the oaken doors and marched into the room with conviction, not faltering in the slightest.

"Good morning," I said curtly to the three figures in the room. They turned to me and since I had reviewed their personnel manifest extensively – as well as other sources of information – I immediately knew who they were.

Lieutenant Heida was one of the two junior officers in the squad and the unofficial second. When Aikuchi was absent, or even just busy with something else, she spoke with his voice and nobody hesitated to comply. She was fractionally taller than me and wore no make-up aside from black around her eyes – more of an intimidation tactic than a beautifying feature. She wore the standard Earth Kingdom ensemble with the Fire-Nation symbol on both shoulders and over the left breast plate. On one hip she wore a long thin sword; akin to but not quite a rapier – it was built a little heavier so it could take more punishment - and on her other hip sat the customary green-hilted dagger. She favored a graceful but deadly fighting style and was one of the most aggressive fighters in the group.

Next to her and leaning up against the long redwood table was Sergeant Lee. He was a quiet man who had been with the squad since that bloody day they had earned their name. Very little was known about him and to hear him speak was a rare thing, but he was a genius fighter and a fiercely loyal comrade. He never wore the issued armor– purportedly saying they slowed him down. He preferred light cloth to the heavy reinforced leather. He looked up as I entered the room and rested both of his hands on the hilts of his duals. I nodded once to him and he returned it.

Finally was a Corporal by the name of Sen. He was a huge man, strong arms over a large gut; but he looked tough. He was relatively insignificant aside from his appearance. He had joined the force fairly recently, according to Jin's records, and had had an uneventful career before that, aside from a short temper and an absurd number of bar fights. His test scores and course runs were satisfactory and he was a fierce fighter with his axe. I looked over the three of them quickly and knew that this was going to be a difficult meeting; especially with a walking disciplinary infraction like Sen.

"Boy, go get your General. We don't have time to be sitting around here talking to some cripple while there's a war going on," ordered Corporal Sen, his loud voice booming off the polished wood walls.

"I am General Arckon. Please, if you will take your seats we can begin," I said, ignoring the Corporal.

"What?" exclaimed Sen, disgusted. "This child cripple is their great General?" He laughed mockingly.

"You have my assurances of my identity, Lieutenant," I continued, refusing to make eye contact with the man making a fool of himself. "I would like us to first-"

"This resistance is a joke if they appoint this little gimp as their General," insisted Corporeal Sen. "I even heard that their other General is some skinny little kid who always wears a mask and their leader is some little girl."

"Corporal Sen," I said stiffly, turning my eye to him for the first time since entering the room. "I assure you our leader is more than competent, the Iron Titan lives up to his name, and every scar you see and do not see on me was earned in this war."

"Oh, I'm sure everything is fine and dandy," he chuckled darkly. "That is until you have to do anything requiring depth perception."

"My depth perception is fine. Using a complicated system of shadows, markers and landmarks I can match any person with both eyes in any contest."

"I'm sure," he said offhand, already turning his back on me. "Sir, this place is a joke. Let's move on and let these children continue to play in this war." Lieutenant Heida, who had been watching me the entire thing, took a moment before answering. Apparently a moment was too long for the Corporal. "Oh, c'mon Sir, just look at this gimp. He couldn't fight a small child let alone help lead a resistance moment. He would get killed in the first real battle. I have no idea how these kids have managed to last this long, playing this game of theirs."

"There is no game," I said simply. He didn't seem to like that. His face got really sour when his face turned back to me. "I have fought more battles and seen more war then everyone in your squad together."

"Those are big words for a little cripple," he sneered down at me as his face turned red. "Let's see if you can back them up."

I had been expecting this since the moment I entered. Apparently the Lieutenant had also seen it coming. She had most likely chosen this man to accompany her as a test of my fighting skills; to see if the 'kids' had it in them. She knew he would blow up and attack me and she wanted to see the result.

I ducked easily beneath a large fist and slid slightly on my right heel, coming up behind him just as he realized I wasn't under his knuckles. I gripped the wrist that flew past my face and wrenched it back. A biting cold crept into my hand as I ground down with fingers that could shatter steel.

He was a Gel-Hassad.

Interesting.

I twisted his arm just slightly, adjusting for the different physiology, and locked his shoulder. My left foot came up and pressed into the back of his neck just as he fell to his knees. With a little jerk of my wrist I pulled a spike of earth up through the hard wood floor and brought it to rest just under his jaw bone, right in the weak spot of his natural plating. It took him a few breaths to realize exactly what had happened, but he eventually caught on. Glancing back at the other two I saw the Lieutenant resting a hand on Lee's shoulder to stop him from interfering.

"Impressive," she said, nodding slightly. "Now can you please release him?"

I let go of Sen's arm and bent the spike back into the ground. I walked around him and stomped on the floor boards, making sure he saw the nails straighten and pull back into the wood. I turned my back on the man and walked up to the other two. Stopping a respectful distance away I held myself stiffly and considered them. "I hope you learned what you expected to."

"I did," said the Lieutenant. I nodded and held out a friendly hand. She looked at it thoughtfully for a moment before reaching out and taking it. The slightly stilted way she clasped my hand, and the deceptively bony feel, told me she was also a Gel-Hassad. I heard Corporeal Sen pick himself up off the ground behind me as I took Lee's hand. I felt nothing. He was full-blooded human. Hmm.

"When can we expect the other General?" asked Heida. She and Lee held themselves slightly differently now; they were taking me seriously. Good.

"He should be along shortly. Please, let us take our seats." I received a nod and we sat, joined a moment later by Sen. I let my arm rest on the wooden rest of the chair. Making sure my hand was below the level of the table and effectively blocked from sight, I reached out silently with a few finger movements and touched my armor, pulling it up.

Metallic footsteps started to echo into the room from the hall. The doors opened, a gleaming silver hand on the door knob. It took a little concentration to control that much steel and iron; usually I had my own body to help guide it. And I usually had more then a few fingers to control it all with, but I think considering the circumstances the armor moved quite well. I had been a little worried it would seem too doll-like without me inside it, but the Green Daggers' inexperience with me worked in my benefit.

With a few more minute movements I forced the armor to speak. Even when I was inside the armor I could not speak through it. It had no mouth and thus verbal speak was rendered useless through the metal. But sound is just vibrations in the air; if I vibrated the metal at the right frequencies and tones I could make a faux voice that sounded nothing like my own.

"Gentlemen and lady," greeted the empty armor with a slight bowing of the head. I then directed it to stand behind my chair so we could begin.

Now that it was situated, it didn't take too much effort to control the armor, so I could take a moment to think about the soldiers before me. Two of them were Gel-Hassad, so it stood to reason that more were within their ranks. What did this mean for them? Just who were the Green Daggers loyal to?

And could we trust them?

-

-Sokka-

-

The sun was starting its walk across the sky when Piando and I stepped back into the street, leaving the Resistance behind us. The golden light glittered off the morning dew on every surface like a million jewels. It was really very pretty. The city was still just waking up, but even now a few people were passing us, going about their business. I took a deep breath of the morning air, tasting the night's dew on my tongue.

"May I ask how it went?" asked Piando, his arms crossed behind him as he walked.

I didn't answer right away, letting my thoughts settle. A small child ran past laughing as his mother chased him telling him to slow down before he fell. I could answer Piando-sensei's question many ways. Some of them better then others. "It went ... better then I feared."

"That is good," he responded, still walking serenely. A shop owner propped open his door as we passed and waved cheerfully to us.

"Yeah," I said as I waved back.

We walked along in peaceful silence for a while. We were just passing a bakery, the smells of fresh bread wafting out when I continued. "I told her some things; I had to."

"I see?" he said softly; there was not accusation in his voice, but the question rang clear. His hands moved slightly inside the sleeves of his robes and a tingling ran down my spine. I looked sideways at Piando and he caught my eye. He had just thrown up a privacy shield, and from the pride in his eyes I assumed it was a test as well.

Normally when Piando-Sensei was proud of something I had done it was a great thing. But right now I had other things weighing down my mind. "She would have been hurt for a long time after if I didn't say anything, especially when she asked me if there was another woman."

"And you couldn't lie to her," he replied as if he didn't need an answer.

"No, I couldn't, and she took it as the worst. She looked so," I paused for a moment, trying to put the look on her face into words. It was just so pained, so hurt. "So, crushed," I said, as a small knot formed in my stomach. "She would have hated for a long time; cursing herself for being blind, or cursing me for hurting her. I would have taken years of her life from her as she hated me. I had to make her see that I was doing it because I could never make her happy."

"I trust that you made the right decision."

I hadn't realized that's what I needed to hear until he said it. I had placed Suki in great danger just by knowing her, let alone what I told her and hinted at. I guess I just needed someone to tell me that I hadn't made a mistake. "Thank you," I said, the iron bands around my chest loosening. I felt a small smile fall on my face as a little of the worry I had for Suki faded. We walked on in silence for a little while.

Piando's eyes had smiled in that way they do when I had thanked him, and in a little flicker of realization I knew that although there was a huge age gap between us, we really were friends. The Gel-Hassad people only allowed their true selves out around their own kind and people that they trusted with their very lives. Hell, most Hassads who _married _never told them the truth. They feared rejection at the very least; or at the worst, violence. The mere fact that Piando was allowing himself to let his heritage show, even in something as small as a smile said great things about his faith in me.

"Piando-sensei?"

"Sokka, you do not have to add the honorific," he said, pleasantly nodding to a woman who seemed to know him.

"I know, it just feels weird to say your name without it."

"I see," he chuckled. "We shall have to work on that."

"Yeah, I suppose we will," I replied. "Anyway, I was wondering if you could tell me why you trust me so much. I know I'm your student and the Incarna and everything. But you seem to put the same trust in me that you would someone you have known your whole life."

Sometimes, not very often, a Gel-Hassad gets the urge to actually smile, lips and everything, even though it pains them. It may be because they have tried to blend in with humans for so long or it could be something deeper. But either way, when a Hassad actually_ feels _smiling, it's unable to _not _smile. It looks very different from the masks they use to hide. It brings a brilliant happiness along with an edging of discomfort to their eyes. It even looks different, smaller and more sincere. When Piando smiled at me as I asked that simple question, I suddenly knew the answer wasn't nearly as simple as I had thought.

"It is because I _have _known you nearly my whole life," he answered as though it was nothing.

"Um, come again?" I asked, not sure I heard him right.

"I met you the first time two hundred years ago."

For a long second I thought on that, trying to see where he was going with this. "Oh, you mean you knew the last Incarna? I seem to remember she lived about two hundred years ago." Suddenly something clicked. "Wait, what do you mean two hundred years ago?"

"The People have a longer lifespan then humans; we believe it is because we were created from the old ones and their lifespan is still unknown to us; we have many texts that place their lifespan at over a thousand years."

As he spoke all of those memories floating around started to come together. "So, The People live to be a little over three hundred years old?"

"Give or take," he said nodding. "The oldest Gel-Hassad I have personally known was three hundred and seventy three when he passed. He was the last Chooser of the Slain and he passed only a short time ago.

"How old are you?" I asked. "Oh, sorry. Unless you don't want to tell me."

Piando laughed good-heartedly and waved away my last question. "I am two hundred and fifty seven years old; about past my middle age."

"Wow, you are a lot older then me," I thought aloud. "Okay, now what was this stuff about you knowing me two hundred years ago?"

"What do you know about the Archive?"

I let my eyes un-focus as a huge amount of information made itself known inside my little head – it hurt. "The Archive is the largest repository of One and Hassad information in the world. It is the hub of knowledge for those of the blood and ... it exists deep inside the neutral zone of the spirit world; almost inside its own pocket dimension. Because it is in the spirit world, where time has a pitiful grasp at the best of times, it can exist in several time realities at once." I jerked my head back a little and shook it to try to get some order up there again. "So, wait, no way. Are you trying to tell me that you met _met _two hundred years ago inside one of those clashes of time?"

"Indeed," said Piando, his voice obviously controlled. "I was there, two hundred years ago when Vashti Ghin, with the help of her times of the Slain, twisted the path of the world so that the spirit would go to a human who had the qualities vitally needed for the future."

I was a little blown back by that and we walked on in silence as I thought about all of that. Someone – this Vashti Ghin; the last Incarna before me, had _selected _me. That damned white wolf was hounding me because someone stuck him on me. But why? If Piando-sensei knew this person she must have had a good heart; I couldn't see him helping someone who had ill intentions.

"Why did I get it anyway? I mean, not that I don't mind the world in my hands and all that, or all of the psychos after me including this Master guy-" I stopped speaking abruptly. When I had mentioned the Master Piando-sensei had gotten a look in his eyes that I had never seen before other then in the memories of Gel-Hassad. It was anger and hate. He knew the Master in a personal sense.

"So you know of him," said Piando, in a very quiet voice.

"Yeah," I admitted, not sure how to take this new side of Piando. I had seen him disappointed a few times in my memories of learning the Shapings, but I had never seen him this disturbed. "He hurt Yue," I finished, opening up my own reasons.

"And that's why Vashti sent the spirit to you," he said softly, the anger of that damned name draining away.

I frowned deeply. "I'm afraid I don't follow."

"The… Master is a madman, a twisted person who bends the world for reasons no man can guess. Two hundred years ago he put every resource he had into hunting down Vashti; hundreds died resisting him, and still more helped him. I was with her, along with the Chooser; the only one of the Ghanim who had not fallen to we had to worry about more him. Avatar Yasuragi had taken over the body of Kiyoshi weeks before and both of them worked together to try to kill Lady Ghin. It was a time of peace for the world, but around the Incarna there was only fear and bloodshed."

"She couldn't stop it, she was only one woman and they were so many," I said stopping in my own footsteps as a few broken recollections rolled over me. "Genzou and Mouretsu; they were fighting over her just like they are with me."

"You spoke of them before," he said slowly, also standing motionless next to me, "but Vashti never confided them in me. She mustn't have wanted to worry me about them. She was much like you in that way."

"You were important to her," I said more then questioned, receiving another honest smile in return.

"Yes," he said softly. "But those days are in the past. We must focus on the now, lest the future elude us."

"I suppose," I conceded, knowing he didn't want to talk about it right now.

"Sokka," he continued. From the sudden change in his voice it seemed like the subject of Vashti would not be brought up again soon. "Do you know what you look like within the archive?"

"No?" I replied slowly, as Piando took a few steps forward. I followed him and soon we were on our way back again. For a whole block we walked in silence as Piando gathered his thoughts. Somehow I knew that the answer was very complicated, and said nothing as he tried to put it into words.

"From the first moment that you touch the Void your essence, or what some might call soul or spirit, explodes outward, instantaneously moving beyond the realm of mortal. You are not the Incarna, nor can you harness the energies properly yet for many months – in normal cases," he added with a slightly amused tone. "But like the Avatar is the Avatar from birth, you are the Incarna from the moment of your first immersion into the spirit realm."

"Alright, I follow that," I answered. "I remember Aang telling me that most Avatars don't begin their training until the monks announce who they are on their sixteenth birthday. So it makes sense that I would be the Incarna almost from the start. At least I had a good number of years before I went all frosty." I winced slightly, recalling the fight I had with Senchi.

"On a small side note," Piando said in a tone of voice I didn't like, "there is very little, even in the Archive, about how an Incarna gains their powers. But in a few of the old stories it is said that the scions are_ born _with their guiding spirits."

That brought me to a full stop again. "Say what now?"

"But they are only stories," Piando said, continuing on without me. I felt myself pass outside the shield when he got a few feet from me and it snapped me out of it. I jogged to catch up to him and felt the shield pull back around me.

"But I never met the damned wolf before the time with Genzou," I pleaded as the feeling of danger from heavy dropping objects and little gray cats came over me.

"I do not doubt that. I am simply giving you all of the knowledge at my disposal, like any good teacher should."

"Okay," I said, nervously looking behind myself. "And how much faith do you put in these stories?"

"Not a lot," he admitted, and I almost breathed a sight of relief. "Although if I thought them nothing I would not have told you." Oh, brilliant. I just know this is going to somehow come back to bit me right in the backside.

"Excellent, only one problem; I have never seen or even heard of the white wolf before all this started."

"That is a problem, but the stories are everywhere and too consistent for there not to be some facts hidden within their meanings."

I just sighed again and followed. Another thought to add to the mounting pile. I hoped it wouldn't all fall to crap. "Alright, I'll keep it in mind. Now back to you meeting me two hundred years ago."

"Because your spirit immediately goes from just being a regular human soul to the essence of the Incarna you do not appear as yourself in within the Archive as everyone else does." Piando spoke softly even though we were inside of the shield. I guessed this was very important. "In the Archive, everyone exists only as spirits, allowing them to meet with people thousands of kilometers away without having to get in their physical bodies. Normally it is something no one even thinks about as it is the norm. But there still exist many people who lived around the time Vashti was the scion, but few who met with her in the Archive.

"As the scion of the Incarna you are too complicated to have a simple form as we do. Your spirit punches through so many dimensions when it first touches the spirit realm. It learns and experiences so many things in those few moments that it becomes something too big to ever be depicted as a simple image of its body ever again except to others like it. So, when you enter the Archive you could look down at yourself and see your body as you do now, but everyone else will only see _what _you are rather then _who _you are."

"What do you mean by 'what I am?'"

"We see you in the sense of what kind of person you are. When I first met you it was a frightening and enlightening experience. The man I saw standing before me was fiercely loyal to his friends and a fiend to any who would threaten them. He was gentle and confused, but at the same time strong and possessing a will that could bend steel." I almost felt a blush rising at the compliments. I'd always liked to think I was like that, but I couldn't help the prideful grin as he spoke. "Sadly that is all I can tell you about that chapter of my life right now."

"Why?" I asked, my little glow fading slightly.

"Because you must experience it yourself to truly understand. I could tell you what to believe; but knowing and believing are two very different things."

"You're talking like I'm going to meet you and Vashti soon," I said carefully, getting the feeling that I was walking on thin ice over deep water.

"I hope you can join me for lunch at the Lotus Garden today," he replied, still walking. I nodded slightly and couldn't help the feeling of fearful excitement filling me. If this meant what I thought it did, I just might get a few answers.

-

Piando and I parted company when we got the back to the parlor. He said he had some preparations he had to do for our lunch meeting and wandered off, leaving me alone with all the old guys playing Pai Sho. It was only about ten minutes later and I was picking at the bowl of peanuts on the bar when I felt someone coming up behind me. I turned around and was met with a sight that set heavily on my chest. I could help but think '_finally_' even as I felt like I was losing a little of the closeness with my sister.

Katara looked beautiful. I suppose she always did; I just didn't want to admit it. I sighed for the hundredth time that day and managed a sincere smile at her. She had a deep look on her face that spoke of danger should I cross her, but it also held of a shard of fear. She was afraid I'd say no, and Aang was just the kind of guy that would work on. I have no doubt that the only reason they were standing in front of me was because of Aang. Katara would have just told him it was stupid, but he was a lot like me.

And speaking of Aang, he looked pretty green. I just stood there for a moment, letting him stew.

"Morning," I said pleasantly, hoping my grin looked just a little carnivorous. Aang paled a little more and Katara looked about ready to hit me. I'd say I pulled it off. "Need something?"

"Y-yeah," stuttered Aang. "I was h-hoping I could t-talk to you?"

"Well go ahead then," I said simply, hiding my grin in my cup of jasmine tea. This stuff was really good. I could really get into drinking it more.

"W-w-well, I was h-hoping to talk, you know, with just you?" he said uncertainly, flustered with my misunderstanding. Katara just glowered at me.

"Come again?" I asked, fighting hard to keep the smile down.

"Sokka, you're being an idiot again," huffed Katara, clearly having enough. Aang must have had a hard time convincing her to let him ask for permission before they moved forward with anything. Damn, I would have loved to play with him a little more.

"Alright, let me just get a fresh cup of tea and we'll grab a table." I turned back to the bartender and he was already pouring me another cup. "You want something Aang?"

"No, I'm fine." He looked so nervous now it was funny. His hands shook a little as he wiped them on his pants as secretly as he could. He actually looked like just the thought of eating anything made him want to throw up.

I gave in. This was really starting to get to him. "Alright Aang," I said trading in my empty cup for a steamy new one. "Let's go." I let him lead me away to a corner table and sat down across from him, just catching the sight of Katara away by Toph out of the side of my eye.

"So, uh. I asked to talk to you because... umm, what I mean is..." muttered Aang, stumbling over himself. Around us the bubbling of conversation hummed dully mixed with the clicking of tiles and cups.

"Calm down Aang," I said kindly, letting a gentle smile show. "I know why you wanted to talk to me."

"You do?" he squeaked, looking like he expected that I might jump up and eat him.

"Yeah, and there's a few things I wanted to talk to you about before I gave you my permission." He looked torn between amazement, terror and the urge to faint back into his chair in relief.

"Yeah, but don't think I'm done torturing you," I finished smirking. Can't leave him thinking he has it too easy. I might be thinking clearer and understanding what's important, but I was still Katara's brother and I intended to act the role.

"So Toph was right, you were just messing with me."

"Yeah, kinda hard not to see you care about each other," I said, taking another sip of my tea. "But I still want to make sure she is taken care of."

"Of course I will," he said, the colour coming back into his face. I leaned back into my chair, the old wood creaking loudly. I knew what I would have done if he had brought this up before now, and with what I knew now...

"You know what I would have said if you had asked me this even a week ago?" I asked him as I gulped back the rest of my tea, hoping it would calm me. He shook his head. "I would have made you promise me that you would take care of her, helping her in anything she wanted to be and protecting her with your life if you needed to."

Aang started to shift uncomfortably in his chair once more. He thought I didn't notice. It was a very subtle movement, one that most people would overlook. But I understood; after all, we were brothers.

"Even now a part of me thinks that this is acceptable."

"Sokka," started Aang, but he trailed off unsure how to continue.

"This is hard for you, isn't it?" I asked, meeting his eyes. My voice was calm and calculated; a stark difference from the amused tone and jokes I had used only moments ago. "Retrying to explain something to me that no man could even begin to understand. If it was anyone else you would make the promise without a second's hesitation, and mean it in a way. But you know that eventually I will figure out exactly what you meant when you made that promise and be angry with you; maybe even my permission. Am I right?"

"Yes," he said, unable to meet my eyes. His hands fidgeted nervously on the table top as a passing waiter took my cup away. He was still trying to find someway to make me understand him, but no regular human could.

"How much of what my sister loves is Aang and how much is an act?" I asked bluntly, going right for the vein. He didn't start or even look surprised at the question. He was obviously expecting it.

"I am – I'm," he let out a ragged breath and leaned back, some of the goofy ignorance I had come to expect from him was missing from his eyes, but he still seemed to be Aang. He ran a hand through his messy hair. I knew it had become a habit of his as he wasn't used to it yet. "I'm not like you."

"I know," I conceded. "But that's not what I'm asking."

"Yeah," he muttered, meeting my eyes again. "I am Aang, but I am also Roku, Kiyoshi, and even Yasuragi to a point. But it's not as simple as that. I am my own man as well as them. I don't get memories like you do, sometimes I get flashes or feeling about something, like – like."

"Like you know you've done this before and the outcome will achieve nothing. You know that route it is pointless."

"No," he said suddenly, raising his hands defensively. "It's not like that. Well, it is a little but not compositely. I sometimes get feelings, really vague feelings about things, but it doesn't force me to do anything."

"Knowing and believing are two very different things," I said, echoing Piando.

"Exactly," agreed Aang. "It's like I almost remember that doing something is not going to solve anything, but it's just a feeling. I could act on it if I wanted too."

So like me, only without all of the details of the past lives. "Alright, but is it Aang or the Avatar that loves Katara?"

"I do!" he said with a passion that made me cock an eyebrow. "I am the Avatar, but I was Aang long before I knew or even started leaning all this stuff. I may get a little knowledge now and again, but other then that and the four elements thing I _am _Aang. The Avatar is just something I was stuck with, like royalty. It's something that's very important, to me and the world but it isn't makes me… er, me? I will learn how to be it to the best of my ability and if need be I will put Aang away at times. But it is _me _that loves Katara- the Avatar is just the spirit of power that makes all of the Avatars strong and gives them a huge roll in the world. And – and – "

He ran out of steam and just stood there staring though me for a long moment as a grin slipped across my face.

"Oh, you clever bastard," he whispered, and I couldn't help but laugh. "But how could you possibly know?"

"What?" I asked, still chuckling. "That you are constantly asking yourself if you're yourself or the Avatar, who loves and who just is? Crap like that?" I received a nod. "Aang, who are you talking too? I've been asking myself the same questions for a while now. And after talking with La I thought you needed this."

"Yeah, I guess I kinda did," he said. "But, now what?"

I rolled the tea cup around my hands for a moment, going over what I knew. There were many things that both of us knew but could not bare to say out loud yet. We were to be two beings of nearly unmatched power; gods among men. And most sane men would never be able to understand what we were or what we had to do in times of crisis. And right now we were both still too human.

"I'm going to ask you for a promise," I said, letting the unsaid into my voice. "I need you to promise me that Katara will be the most important person in Aang's life. That Aang will protect and support her in anyway she needs, whether she knows she needs it or not."

His eyes hardened as I spoke, not in anger or anything like that, but understanding. He knew. He felt it too. The parlor seemed to go completely silent for a long time, and the unspoken went from the depths of nightmares to reality when each of us admitted it to the other. The unreal became real between the Avatar and the Incarna as two men forged a promise.

"I promise," said Aang, the Avatar missing.

"Then I give you my permission," I said, the Incarna missing from my own voice.

The noise of the parlor came rushing back as the glasses that seemed to hang in the air move on toward open mouths. Pai Sho tiles that hovered in the air finally clicked down. The tea cup three tables over that had fallen finally shattered on the floor, signaling the unbreakable vow forged between two halves of one.

"Well, that was weird," cracked Aang, breaking the weight of the moment. I felt a sudden snapping sensation as I came back together and placed my cup upside down on the table.

"Yeah," I admitted. We both knew what had just happened. We were two parts of one, the yin and yang and any promises made between us were ironclad and the price for betrayal was a steep one. As a rule we don't make promises to one another without seriously thinking them through. This was one of those occasions.

"You talked with the oceans?" he asked, trying to clean the air.

"Yup," I grinned easily, putting most of what we had just left unspoken behind me. There would be time for that later. "And I found out he was an old Avatar, but I think you guessed that already?"

"Mostly," he admitted sheepishly. "Get any other great revelations while you were there?"

"Yes," I said. "I figured out why you have been really quiet around me for a while now. We've barely talked for weeks and even when we do its strained."

"Oh ... that," he said guiltily.

"You've been getting nightmares for a while too, sent to you from Yasuragi who -- I assume, sensed that I was getting close to touching the Void."

"Sorry, it's just that they were so real. I tried not to let them bother me, I really did."

"It's fine," I said, waving it off. "I was getting really nervous around you for a while there too. Let's just both say we were being stupid and move on huh?" I reached across the table and held out my hand.

Aang laughed a little. "Okay," he said, taking my hand and giving it a small shake. Nothing really changed between us, but I suddenly felt like I could breathe a lot easier. "Anyway, what have you been up to today? We all got up and you were already gone. We asked a couple people and they said that you had gotten up at like four in the morning and went off somewhere with Piando."

"Yeah, about that," I chuckled rubbing the back of my head. "I may have just gotten more power. Apparently I was dreamwalking all night and I met up with Suki."

"Oh," Aang said a little too quickly, and he began to fidget nervously again. "So what happened?"

"What? No surprise that I walked through peoples dreams?" I asked, trying to act hurt.

"Oh my gods!" gasped Aang mockingly, brining up both hands to his face.

"Smartass," I grumbled, throwing a bunched up napkin at him.

"Better then being a dumbass!"

"Don't make me bind you to the ceiling fan."

"Oh no, someone save me from the scary Incarna-man!" he cried in a squeaky little voice. "He's gonna bind me to a ceiling fan – wait, you can do that?"

I couldn't help but burst out laughing. "I walk into a someone's dream I haven't met in months, and you're fine with it. But the second I threaten to bind you to the fan you get all disbelieving?"

"Hey, you the one with strange voidy powers no one really remembers!" He pointed at me accusingly. "You can't blame me for not getting all the little details!"

"But you thought it was perfectly normal for me to walk through dreams?"

"Well, yeah!" he said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Really, one of your power thingamajigs is called dream, so it kind makes sense that you'd have control over them."

"I suppose."

"Alright, you met Suki and then what?"

"Things went like they usually do around me. I ended up talking with Suki and then Yue and La for a while; they gave me some more insight into the Master, as he calls himself. He only gets stranger and more scary by the way."

"Nice, sounds like fun ahead."

"Quite," I sighed. "After that fiasco in which I remembered another one of my past lives, mind you, I woke up and came down stairs. I talked a bit with Piando. Yelled a bit. Had some tea. Then I went to meet up with the Resistance movement under the pretense of joining grandmaster Haiyahi for a meeting. I found Suki, just like I wanted too and had a great chat.

"So Suki's here too?" asked Aang, sounding distracted. He had gotten awful quiet when I started talking about her.

"Yeah, apparently she's part of the resistance here. Not sure exactly what she does but she seems to fit in pretty well. She seems to have a few good friends ... and there's a disguise involved, so I'm thinking she may be doing some sort of infiltration."

"Hmm." His eyes darted over to the door that Katara and Toph had disappeared into before we sat down. He did it so quick that I wasn't sure even he knew he did it, but I caught it. I just had no idea what it was supposed to mean.

"What's up?" he asked me a moment later, startling me out of my thoughts.

"I was wondering what was up with you?" I said honestly. He fidgeted a little when I said that, making me even more suspicious. Alright, I was really getting the feeling that I was missing something again. I didn't like it and it seemed like it was happening more often lately.

"Oh, nothing really important," he lied, forcing what he thought was a grin on his face. It didn't work. "So, anything else happen?"

"Yeah."

"Important?" he prompted.

"Very," I sighed. I really didn't want to get into this. Some part of me hoped that if I ignored it for long enough it would go away. Huh, worked so well with everything else. "I think I found one of the Jenkotsu."

I watched his face as it flicked with a few different emotions. First there was confusion as he tried to remember who they were. Then there was a little bit of hope as he realized that there might be someone else to help him with the burden of the world. And finally there was horror as he remembered what I had said about them. "Are they on our side or … the Master's?" he asked, trying out the name of our newest enemy.

"I don't know," I said honestly as I calmly waved over a waiter and ordered another cup of tea for myself and one for Aang too. He would need something to help calm his nerves in a minute.

"How did you meet them? Did they attack you?"

"Nothing like that," I said waving away his fears, but failing from the looks of it. "I – uh felt him and then, kinda looked at him with the void," I said, still a little uncomfortable with how to explain some of my abilities. "I didn't try anything or even try to get a better look at him. I'm not strong enough yet to take one of them on. I think."

"Okay," he said, considering it. "Well do we at least know what he looks like?"

"Suki called him Arc and the Escort guy called him General Arckon. He's about seventeen or eighteen with long brown hair. He has pretty bad scarring all down the right side of his face," I said, touching my own to make the point. "He's also missing his right arm."

Aang went quiet for a moment, no doubt searching his memory for such a person. He seemed to come up empty and with a description like that he would have been bound to make an impression if he had ever come across this 'Arc'.

"I know how he got his scars," I said softly just as the waiter returned with our tea. I took mine and thanked him while Aang waited impatiently for me to continue. "It's a powerful Waterbender technique that was developed a few thousand years ago by the Water Henkotsu and passed down ever since, apparently."

"What's it do?" he asked me, his tea held forgotten in limp hands.

I leaned back into my chair, the old wood creaking loudly. "It's kind of like blood bending, only a little more unrefined. It might be what blood bending was developed from." I couldn't see that crazy old woman being the Water Henkotsu, at least not this generation's… but maybe she was of the line? "Most every water bender, with the right amount of experience and training is to be able to draw the warmth out of water to freeze it. But to put heat into it takes something else entirely."

I took a sip of my tea, relishing the hot liquid. "They target specific points on a person's body with a single touch, establishing an invisible link with the cells that they had contact with. Then they would push heat in the form of energy along the thread into the person's body, causing the tissue to heat up until it reaches a critical point. Then the person's flesh would literally explode from within."

"Oh, gods," groaned a green Aang. "That sounds like a horrible way to go."

"It is," I said solemnly. It took an instant before comprehension dawned on Aang's face. I had lived many lives before this one, and not all of them had ended peacefully.

"So only a Jenkotsu or Henkotsu could manage this?"

"No," I said honestly. "Any water bender _could, _it just takes a little something extra. But on average – yes, most of the people who learn this possess a spark of one kind or another." I raised my tea cup again. "To the best of my knowledge anyway; you're the bending expert."

We sat in silence for a time after that. Aang was trying to get a grasp on all of this and I was enjoying a moments rest. I drank some more tea and watched a Pai Sho game two tables over. I had only just started picking up the rules but it looked like a game I would like to learn.

"So, if it was the Water Jenkotsu that scarred him like that, does that mean he's against the Master and was trying to stop them, or...?" Aang, ever the optimist.

"Or was it the Water Jenkotsu that was trying to stop_ him _from serving the Master?" I finished. "Truthfully, there's no way we could know. We're just going to have to play it cool until he attacks me this afternoon."

"What!" Aang shouted, startling the entire parlor. I looked around and smiled when everyone turned back to their games and pretended nothing had happened. Then I took a lesson from Piando-sensei and drew half-dozen little glyphs on the table in tiny green flames and activated a privacy spell.

Aang's eyes bounced back and forth between my face and looking aghast at the glyphs as they quickly disappeared and looked amazing. I'm sure if it was any other time he would have been hounding me with questions, but luckily for me the impending attempt on my life seem to take the front gate.

"Attack you! When? Who told you? Are you sure!" I waiting politely until he stopped machine gunning questions at me – it was a bit of a wait.

"I know because as I was talking to Suki, which wasn't working by the way, I was begging for some way to tell her what she needed to know without telling her things that would endanger her. When I did that I sort of saw, sort of heard that he would attack me this afternoon at the festival the Fire-Nation is having. New Ozai day or whatever it's called – something about unity in the new city or crap."

"But-" Aang seemed to be torn. "What do we do?"

"We do whatever we normally would and when he attacks me this afternoon-"

"We have to do something!" screamed Aang, his eyes almost firing out of his skull. I was really glad I put up the privacy spell now.

"He's going to attack me later this afternoon, and I don't think we can avoid it. Put it off? Maybe. But it's inevitable."

"How can you possibly know all this?" he asked in a regular voice again. He flopped back into his chair.

"I told you I heard it when I was talking to Suki."

"But you said yourself you can't take a Jenkotsu on your own." Now we had traded in 'freaking out Aang' for 'concerned – must save the world, Aang'.

"I can't," I stated plainly. "But I won't have to."

"Got that right!" he said forcefully. "I'm gonna be there."

"No you won't. The first thing he will do is restrain you three."

"I'll get out." I almost had to applaud his spirit there; he looked like he could almost chew steel saying that.

"No, only one of you will get out," I said. I was really starting to surprise myself with how calmly I was taking all of this. I suppose that you really can get used to anything. "And it won't be you."

"Well, who then? Will you be okay?" I looked up at my brother in everything but blood – this time – and had to smile at him. Aang, all five and a half feet of him, looked about ready to charge right into the Fire Lord's palace. He stood there, meaning every word. The morning light came in through the window making him almost glow. All he needed was a white scarf or a flapping coat to complete the hero look.

"Don't worry Aang, I'll be fine." My face cracked in a sincere smile. "I'll be in good hands." My brow pulled down a little. If I had interpreted it right. "Literally – I think."

"Alright," he said, satisfied for the time being. "Are you going to tell me what you saw though?"

I sighed and put both of my elbows on the table, pressing my eyes into the palms of my hands. I took a deep breath, trying to quiet my mind. It had been so fleeting the first time I wasn't sure if I could remember it all. But the instant I closed my eyes there it all was. Every feeling and every impression just as clear as it had been when I had first gotten it; almost like it had been waiting for me.

"The Earthen Angel comes to bring his fist down upon the Gray Ghost. The being of one close to him pushes him further down the path of misunderstanding, and fear for the people force him to raise his armour. As the sun descends of the day of fire, iron and void meet in violence. The allies of the Gray Ghost are being held for protection they don't need, but when the fight tilts one is freed and the world sees for the first time the might of the Mistress of Metal."

I sat still while the feeling fell away again. I felt a little shaky after that and reached for my tea cup, hoping that a drink would help. I gulped down the rest of it and put the empty cup upside down on the table next to the other one. I shook myself, casting off the sleepiness I felt and popped my neck. Across from me Aang's mouth was wide open – as were his eyes. "What?"

"You just made a prophecy."

"I did not!" I shouted sharply. "Like hell am I anything like that damn dirty floor mat!"

"But, you said things ... that would happen later," he babbled. Apparently he was beyond blinking also. It was starting to weird me out.

"I just repeated what I felt," I said firmly, trying to make him see I had done nothing special.

"Prophecies are made by weird old ladies who charge way too much and get it wrong half the time."

"But you said yourself that Aunt Wu was real," he protested.

"I agreed that she seemed real, yeah. But I am nothing like her and I'd thank you to remember it." I could talk about some crazy one-armed guy coming after me later today like nothing. But accusations about me making prophesies really got under my wolf-tail. I glanced at the clock ticking away on the counter by the bar. It was almost ten now.

"Aang, I have to meet someone else for another difficult talk before lunch so could we please just drop the prophecy thing?"

He looked like he wanted to argue about it more, but he finally let up. "I guess."

"Great," I said shortly. I got up out of my chair and disassembled the privacy spell with a wave of my hand. "I've got to think for a little before I climb into the jaws of the beast again."

And with that I left the parlor.

* * *

-This chapter has been Beta-approved :)-

Alright, as you can see we're getting closer to something :)

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Jade Knight - Richard Caine - Kitty

**Check out the forum!**

**Please review**


	18. Footsteps In The Dirt

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Hello fellow angry mob-sters! As you probably have noticed, it has been well over a month since the Jade Knight has posted a new chapter. And, hm, doesn't this sound familiar?  
"I have chapters 18 and 19 with Richard now, expect them out soon!" Hmmm...soon...  
I guess I'll have to lead the angry mob now. Sigh.  
Well, enjoy the long-awaited chapter anyway! And possibly prepare yourself for a glimpse or two of Tokka....hint hint. Well I won't spoil it. Read away!

~Kitty~  
*Meow*

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Richard steps out of the castle and walks across the draw bridge. He had just been knocking on the absurdly large doors and thinking about compensation when he noticed some people milling around in the courtyard. Deciding he was tired of waiting for the Knight to answer he wanders over to see what's going on.

When he gets close enough he sees that there is a bus sitting at the end of the driveway and the people seems to be relaxing and drinking bottled water. Many looked like they had been doing a lot of physical activity lately and were just cooling down. Curious

"Whats going on over here?" asked Mr Caine.

A man stepped forward, his name tag saying only 'Silver'. "I am the driver of this bus, and I work for the 'You Pissed Us Off' mob transportation."

"Yeah that bastard promised a quick update!" shouted a random man.

"Kept screaming something about it not being his fault," said an old man leaning against the black bus.

"Yeah," said a woman suspiciously, "he kept saying that he really did have both chapters with you and was only waiting for you to return them."

"Did he really?" asked Richard innocently, as he noticed that their seemed to be no sign of his metal accomplice. "What were you doing to him while he was 'screaming' all of this?"

"Beating him with hammers, running him through with lances and making him watch every episode of Barney the dinosaur."

"Did you now?" said Richard schooling his face into one of triumph. "Well I just so happen to have discovered this in his castle while waiting for the slow tin man."

"What is it?"

"Chapter 18," he said holding out a stack of papers. "And I had nothing to do with the lateness or his consequential lies – horrible, horrible lies." A thunderous cheer goes up from the mob as they quickly pile into the Bus, rushing home to be there when it was uploaded.

After watching then race into the distance, Richard Caine, feeling quite safe now began to make his way back up to the castle. Stopping only once to pick up the dented and beaten green helm he had seen on the way down, choosing not to acknowledge until right then.

"See I just saved you metal ass; you owe me." The green eye-slits narrowed but no voice came forth as the lower half of the helmet was missing … as well as the body, rendering the Jade Knight quiet unable to speak or deliver physical blows.

* * *

Alright, sorry for the delay but here is chapter 18. Things came up as they sometimes do and this is where we are. 19 is done, like I said before and 20 is started. I'm not going to jinx it by guessing when the next update will be, so make your own conclusions. But do know that it will be a short time. The THINGS THAT CAME UP -thunder clap- are still nipping at the heels.

-

**NEW FORUM UPDATES!**

**Black Sword FanArt:** we already have a few submissions. Add something of your own or look at what other people have put up! Quality is not an issue; any put downs or insults against someones art work will not be tolerated. -I would like to ask Silver to put a link to his 'Mob' drawing, all of us over here really liked it :)-

AND A SECOND NEW FORUM ANNOUCED AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER. DON'T SPOIL IT FOR YOURSELVES!

-

k, I think thats it.

Curtain Up!

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**Written and read best in 1/2 format**

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**Sokka: Master of the Black Sword**

Author: The Jade Knight

Co-Author: Richard Caine

Beta: Kitty (A.K.A. kathykatinahat)

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**-The Resistance Saga-**

**Chapter 18**

-

The Story of Sokka

Footsteps In The Dirt

-

I walked through the streets slowly, my hands hooked into my belt – I didn't have pockets. I wasn't sure what I expected, but I supposed I just needed to go someplace where no one knew who I was; somewhere to just think. I looked up into the wide blue sky, my sword weighing down on my back like a constant reminder of the power I would soon wield.

How strong was I to be?

I had no idea. Sure I had defeated Yasuragi, but that was only because Aang was still just learning all of his bender stuff and he didn't have access to his Avatar state. I felt goosebumps rise when I thought about how powerful he would be with it. I didn't think there was anyone left alive today that remembered what that much power looked like. Except _maybe_ Bumi.

But I did.

He was like me, he had a base power that rose a little every day. With just that base power he would eventually have the ability to redirect rivers and divide mountains. Hell, Roku had almost beaten a bloody volcano! But then you add in the power increase that the Avatar state gave him and … he rose to god-like strength.

What else could you call two thousand times the raw energy it took to raise a tidal wave, or level a city?

Apparently I had a ten times ability increase in my 'Incarna state.' But what was I capable of in the first place? I would never have the raw might Aang did. I would always be leagues behind him in raw power. But my power lay in another place.

My strengths were smaller, but more refined then his. While he was like a massive explosion ripping apart the night sky, I would be a poisoned arrow to strike at the neck of the enemy. I would be able to fight along side him, even against him if needed. But never like him.

Was I a powerful spirit shaper? I didn't know. I had never really seen other shapings apart from the ones in my past, my crafted memories from Piando or the few that he did himself. How would I measure up?

I imagine I would be the Avatar to their benders, but I wasn't certain. And even then what did that mean? A thousand benders in a frontal attack against the Avatar might score a lucky hit, or they could even push him back under sheer numbers. It wouldn't make them stronger, but they could defeat him.

I wasn't infallible and I never would be, but what did that really mean?

I sighed deeply as I continued on. This thinking was getting me no where. I would not know what kind of abilities and strengths I would have until I discovered them.

What a pain in the ass.

I made my way down the street, tossing a few copper into a beggars bowl and turning down a few merchants. The sun was getting closer to it peak. I could feel the temperature rising and the time running out. I would have to meet Piando soon to deal with whatever he had wanted earlier. Then I had to tell the others about that earth Jenkotsu. We should meet the resistance while we were there. And then later on there would be the festival that 'Arc' was going to attack me at.

Should I go to the festival knowing what would happen, or risk the unknown by not going? Damn, I hate prophecies**. **Not that it was a prophecy that I had made. Nope. Not a chance.

I've always thought self delusion to be the sweetest.

I bought a sweet bun from a vendor as she ambled past, pushing her creaky cart. I bit into the warm bread and let out an appreciative groan. It was damn good. I wandered along mindlessly for a while as I ate it and just let the world pass me by. It was nice to just be another face in the crowd, if only until I ate my little sweet bun.

I finished the last piece and brushed the crumbs off my face. I looked around to see where I was. I had walked for a while without really thinking about anything and I had ended up in what seemed to be a market square.

On all four sides of the square shop windows were thrown open, allowing people to gaze longingly at their wares. One just to my left seemed to be a fresh sushi restaurant – delivered daily according to the large sign over the doorway. I glanced into the window and noticed that almost every table was full. Next to it was a clothier with a number of tasteful robes and shirts hanging in the display case – at least I think they were tasteful. I was never really good at that sort of thing. Meh, Yoten's looked better anyway.

Next to that was what appeared to be a blacksmith. I ambled over and let my eyes drink up the glittering goodness laying on a table just inside the building. I stepped into the shade of the store and my greedy fingers danced over the shiny things before me.

"Careful there laddie," called a gruff but not unkind voice from further in. "Don't cut yer'self."

"I won't," I said, unable to look away from the beautiful bladed tonfa in front of me. They were crafted from the darkest mahogany I had ever seen. I let my fingers touch the handles and I couldn't even feel the grain of the wood beneath the impossibly smooth varnishing job. The leather grips were supple, looking of a very high quality and I couldn't help but pick one up.

I held it up in front of my face, the leather wrapped handle held firmly in my palm. The main body of the weapon was secured perpendicularly to the handle – much like the batons the law-enforcers carried, except for the fact that this one seemed to be made from a single piece of wood instead of several. But it's main difference from its law counterparts were the blades reflecting the golden flames flickering the the belly of the open furnace in the back of the building.

The first blade was secured by metal rivets, perfect flush with the dark wood bringing a startling difference between silver and black. It swept gracefully down a foot and a half past my elbow, without sharp angles of any kind and ending in a wicked hook.

The second blade rose up out of the wood in the same grace but a few inches from the first. I turned it slightly and noted that both blades seemed to also be a single piece, crafted with expertise far surpassing anything I have ever seen before. The blade went far past my fist, straightening into a double-sided knife that would be devastating in a forward punch or a slash.

I had never held one of these before, but there was something about how it sat in my hand that was achingly familiar. My hands had not toughened up like they would have if I had trained with these all my life, but even still, some part of me knew that if I dared I could move with these as though I had fought with them for fifty years.

" Exquisite," I said softly, unable to break the spell the tonfa had over me.

" Isn't she?" said a voice next to me with the same longing and wonder. I pried my eyes from the orange flickering in the polished metal and looked to my left. "Problem_ is _that the smither knows that; he wants twelve gold for her."

I nodded in agreement. This boy – well man, as he looked a year or so older than me, was looking at the tonfa in my hand completely moonstruck. I guessed that he couldn't afford them since he had a haggard 'laborer' look to him; the kind of guy who worked all day, everyday at some job just to earn enough to eat. Someone who worked hard to get everything in his life, who had been handed nothing and wasn't bitter because of it.

But his hands told me another story.

He had the toughened skin between his index finger and thumb that came from holding tonfa without the grips this one had – from the looks of it he had had some sort of old cloth, maybe an old shirt, wrapped around the handles. But he still received the occasional splinter – I could count two from here.

They told me of a man who raced home and practiced with his own handmade tonfa for at least two hours before supper, and then another after he did the dishes. His black eye and bruised forearms told of a man who takes his yearly vacation time off to go to one of the tournaments that always seem to be going on this time of the year.

He practiced with tonfa because it was something he was good at. He had fought against other people who said it was nothing but a waste of time and made it something all his own. In a world where he had very little, the tonfa represented his independence.

"Did you win?" I asked casually, openly looking over his battle wounds.

He looked down at his own hands as though seeing the bruises for the first time, and then grinned sheepishly. "Not quite. I entered the mixed combat tournament that we have in this district and lost my fifth match."

"Oh," I asked, my interest coming through on my voice. "I entered one in one of the smaller settlements out west. It was a lot of fun and I saw some things I had never even imagined before." Well, it was true. I had gotten my first look at a Gel-Hassad there. Not forgetting some of those wicked fights. Ahh, I needed to do that again sometime soon … if only Katara wouldn't kill me for it.

"Yeah," he reminisced. "I had three of my fights against Fire-Benders and they were tough fights and all, don't get me wrong. But you should have seen this one guy with a spear."

"A spear," I cracked mockingly.

" Damn right a spear," he shot back grinning. "It was about a ten-footer and the guy whipped it around so that it actually _curved_ coming in, and every time it would be a slightly different angle." He paused for a moment to glow. "He was amazing."

"Sounds like you have a crush," I joked. He looked at me funny for a second before realizing I was just playing with him and started laughing.

"Kurogan," he said holding out his hand as he fought down the giggles. "I didn't see you at the tournament, but it was a big thing."

"I just got into the city last night," I replied, giving his hand a shake. "And who says I would want to enter anyway?"

"The sword on your back does; she's a real looker. Where'd you get her?"

"It was specially made," I said, putting the tonfa down gently next to it's counterpart and pulling my sword from its scabbard so that we could both admire it. Its deep black surface reflected the minimal light in the dark space and positively radiated awesomeness. I spun it around so that the hilt faced Kurogan and held it out.

Just as he was about to take it I began to wonder why I was trusting a man who's name I had just found out with my sword. A little pull at the back of my mind pissed me off. It seemed that I wasn't allowed to know this quite yet either.

"I've never seen a metal quite like this," Kurogan commented, running his hand over the hassad yavim. He tilted it slightly to get a look down the long end of the blade and appreciated the craftsmanship. "She's a beauty, and someone has loved her, taking good care of her."

" She's saved my life quiet a few times," I replied seriously. He offered the blade back and I re-sheathed it.

"Ain't that the usual story these days?"

"Pretty much."

"Alright, it was nice meeting you and your girl but I need get going before I'm late."

"Sure thing," I said, shaking his hand again. "We'll meet again soon."

He raised an eyebrow questioningly. "Psychic, are we now?"

Something like that." I grinned wildly as he thought that over for a time before he shrugged it off.

"Well, it was nice talking to you," he said, tipping me a bastardized military salute. Then he turned around and jogged off to wherever he was going before he had stopped to chat. I smiled as he left, following him out of the building a minute or so later when he had vanished into the thickening crowd.

I knew we'd meet again.

I made my way over to the fountain in the middle of the square and let the smell of the water waft over me. I smacked my lips on the taste of moisture in the air and sat down on the edge. It was a nice fountain. It was made of a light desert stone and had a fantastically carved dragon twisting up out of the water. It was scaly and had long whiskers that looped around it's head. Heh, it reminded me a little of Katara. I just stared at it, water arcing out of it's mouth, and tried to get my mind in the right place.

Toph.

I couldn't help but let a goofy grin find its way onto my face. My little warrior Toph.

I could never give Suki the life that she wanted, because what she wanted was peace in the traditional way. She wanted someone to be there, to stand beside her and most importantly to lead a life on the crest of a lake. To wake up to the sounds of water lapping at the shore and the cries of seagulls next to someone she knew would be there every morning.

It was simple and I could understand it; but I could never be that person.

But what about Toph?

Toph was … ha, how _did_ you classify her?

She was a force of nature. She could stand as tall and steady as a mountain and then turn right around and become a boulder rolling right at you. She would never let anyone baby her or treat her like she was breakable. She wanted an equal, someone who would be there for her without trying to take everything over. Hell, for some things I'm sure she would settle for nothing less than taking the front seat.

At least that was what I thought she wanted … or was it just what I hoped?

But even then, did she like me that way? Was I just an annoyance to her like I seemed to be at first? Or did she come to view me as a brother like I had done with Aang? My head was starting to throb with the oncoming of a major headache. Dammit! Why was this all so complicated and tough? Why couldn't I just … I don't know … do anything!

I dipped my fingertips into the water and the koi-fish beneath the water darted away. I swirled my hand through the water for a while, just letting the cold water numb my fingers.

Maybe I was just thinking this whole thing the wrong way?

I was trying to think of how she _could_ come to care about me, but I was just making myself sick trying to figure this out. I was supposed to be some great savior of the world like Aang, but what did that mean about the me who had grown up on the icesheets back home? Aang had told me that it was him, not the Avatar that loved Katara. Was I the same way? Two halves of the whole that would always be side by side, but opposite?

I guess it made sense – sorta.

I looked down into the water and my own face reflected back at me. Only … it wasn't quite me this time. I may have just been imagining it but it was almost as if the Incarna in me had separated a little more. "Well, what do you think?"

No response, and here I was almost expecting one.

I drew my hand over my reflection, stirring it up until it was swallowed in the ripples. I stared hard into the pool, hoping that it would somehow show me an answer. My face started to appear behind the froth I had created, and right there, just over my right shoulder was a misty apparition of a wolf. I focused all of my attention on it as the ripples thinned out and the water calmed again, showing only me.

I guess I could have ranted and screamed about it, but I just didn't see the point. I was going to have to face the wolf eventually and it was going to be a part of me for the rest of my life. I suppose I might have called it here, so that I could make this decision.

"Do I go ahead and try to build something with Toph or do I back off?" I asked, looking into the water where the wolf had been. No answer presented itself. I sat there for a time, trailing my finger through the water. I liked the feeling of the water on my hands. We had been in the desert for a few days already and it felt nice. Yue; what had she said?

" '_Think deeply on your feelings for her_.' Great, what do you think I have been doing?" I said darkly, looking up into the sky where the moon was almost invisible in the noontime sun. What was the rest of it? "'_Most importantly think about what you would do to get her attention.' _All right, I'll go with you on this one."

"What would I do?" I asked my reflection. I suppose I would try to start a few conversations to get to know her a little better. Alright, that was a start. But what else? Something was knocking around the back of my head again. It was getting a little annoying really.

"_Have you ever though about how strange letters and writing are?" _

I shook my head, jarring loose stupid thoughts. She _had_ started a pretty random conversation back there, could it be that – no, it couldn't be. I cleared my throat once to try to break the tension that was building around me. "Your hoping again, stupid boy," I told my reflection.

Now, back to the smart-making. What else would I do if I wanted to get her attention? Hm, I was never really good at this stuff; I usually just winged it. But, I supposed I could also show her that she could trust me and that I was willing to support her in whatever she wanted to try.

" I don't know Katara," _said__ Toph thoughtfully. "He might stand a pretty good chance, after all I was both the youngest and smallest Earthbender to ever win the Earth-Rumble. Size is no clear indication of power." _

I blinked a few times. Behind me a ball bounced past chased by a few screaming children. A look of confusion and something else fell across my reflection's face. Toph had said that when I had wanted to enter the Sodatsu to get us the five hundred gold piece prize money that we we currently living off of.

I tried not to dwell on hopes again and pushed on. I could also try to get some time away from my sister and Aang so that we can just talk or something.

"_No, because I gave her some story about how I had only been with you guys for, like eight months and you were the only one I hadn't really gotten to know yet. I talked to Aang all the time when we earth trained, and since we always used to divide up the chores by gender I think I know quite a bit about Katara. But I said that I hadn't talked to you alone all that much."_

This time I had to remind myself to start breathing again. No, there was no way in any of the seven hells I was this … this much of a 'stupid boy,' as La had put it. I looked down into my reflection once more, only this time it looked bewildered and almost hopeful. Could it really be?

I was assaulted by dozen of memories that I had just brushed off at the time. She had blushed when I mentioned that Toph was a pretty name when we were trying to think of a fake one. She would seek me out to try to start a conversation when ever we were setting up camp. Little glances and nudges from Katara just before Toph would come over.

" Really! Wow, Sokka, coming from Toph thats a very nice compliment, isn't it_?" Aang asked wiggling his eyebrows at me._

"_Ow, what did Toph do that for? I was trying to help."_

"_That wasn't helping!" shouted Katara. "That was as blunt as an avalanche!"_

"_But your the one who said that Sokka was the dumbest smart person you had ever met for not seeing that-"_

"_Shut up, Aang before you say it."_

My reflection stared back at me open mouthed, with a very stupid look on his face. Was I just making connections in hope or was that really … if that was real, then...Oh gods no. Aang knew before I did!

I hung my head over the water and fought the urge to drown myself.

-

After I managed to pull myself away from the very inviting water I made my way as fast as I could to the Lotus Garden. I knew that Toph would still be there later, but I needed to see her now. I needed to find out if it was like I thought it might be, or if I was just being an idiot again. I mean, if I remembered everything correctly there was no doubt, but what did that mean? Did I have a chance with her? Or was I just seeing patterns in the air?

Another burst of adrenaline caused me to nearly run.

I hated to admit it, but I was beginning to play with the idea that I might have to spend my life alone, that I would never be fit to give anyone a proper life. But what about Toph? She loved a good challenge and she never liked sitting still or any of that stuff, but would she still want to be around me years from now with all this? I didn't know, but I possibly had just gotten a huge slap across the face that told me I was being an idiot again … and it felt a lot like Toph.

I slid around the corner and forced myself down to walk. I didn't want to get in there all red-faced and puffing – it wasn't the best look on me. Once the Parlor came into sight I had to fight with myself every step of the way down that path. It was right _there_, only a few hundred step away, and she was in it!

In just a few minutes I would be talking with her about things I had kept inside for a long time. What would she say? Would she tell me that I was being stupid? Or that I should have seen it long ago? If that was the case – considering how stupid I had been lately – I wouldn't be too surprised if I was the last one to catch on.

I reached for the ordinate door handle. My hand shook slightly as I gripped the warm metal, and pulled. I fought the nervousness shooting through my chest and forced my breathing down to a more reasonable pace.  
I opened the door and stepped into the parlor. I walked past the doorman and the bouncer who only nodded respectfully. I quickly glanced around the room, over the Pai Sho players sipping their teas and the waiters weaving their paths between them. Steam rose to the roof in fading spirals over the tables from the tea cups. The click-clicking of the painted tiles on the playing board was only just downed out by the three men playing stringed instruments on the small stage at the front. I passed over the dozen or so faces, and it only took me a second to find those hair loopies.

I tried to keep a goofy grin – or a worried expression-- off my face as I walked over to my sister, seeing only Aang next to her at the table. They had a light lunch in front of them, – just the two of them. Oh, I see. Any other time I would have revealed in the blush and look of momentary panic from Aang before he calmed himself. I suppose any brother is scary for a moment – even one who gave you permission – if they sneak up on you looking a little crazy in the face.

" Katara," I said as soon as I was close enough to negate the need for shouting. "Have you seen Toph?"

Katara looked over her shoulder and smiled when she saw me. "Last I saw she was going out to the garden in the back. She said something about needing some dirt beneath her feet."

"Great," I exclaimed jubilantly, resisting the urge to bolt to the garden. I veered away from their table and cut my way through the old men over to the back door, forcing myself to walk with dignity, although I think I bounced a little on my steps.

"Sokka, what's this about?" asked Katara, a slightly worried look growing on her face.

"Do we all need to get together? Is it something dangerous?" called Aang, but I was almost at the door and still trying my hardest to restrain myself.

"Its nothing bad!" I called back with a cheery wave.. "I think I just realized what an idiot I am … but, yeah; it might be a little dangerous." Aang seemed about ready to jump up and follow me but Katara grabbed him and pulled him back down with a strange look in her eye. Some part of me recognized it as the look all women had when there was a relationship brewing. Whoot! Maybe I had a chance! I walked quickly through the door and down the short corridor. I passed the kitchen, almost drooling over the meaty smells. But I managed to bully myself past it, hitting the the back door and stepped out into the sunlight again.

The Lotus Garden had a decent sized piece of land behind it that had been converted into a peaceful retreat. Well, nice size considering that it's in the middle of the largest city in the world.

It had a dozen different kinds of trees; everything from the Mondale Spruce found mostly in the southern parts of the Earth Kingdom to the trees I couldn't name with sandy brown leaves. They were packed as closely together as was comfortable ringing the modest garden. Most of them were young, but a few were clearly reaching for two hundred years, raising up above the rooftops and a nice sight to see from all around.

I walked down the small cobblestone path leading from the door deeper into the garden, bright flowers blooming on either side. A flowerbed laid to my left, filled with reds and golds that shown brightly in the almost noon time sun. Ferns brushed my legs and a cherry blossom lounged in the middle of the garden sprinkling pink petals over the whole area.

I took a steeling breath of the perfumed air and continued on. Outwardly I think I looked pretty calm, but inside I was a frantically trying to figure out what to say. A thousand things spun themselves up and down in my head until I think I started to get motion sickness.

I stopped quite suddenly on the path when I can across a pair of abandoned shoes – shoes with the soles punched out. I stood still, and when I had manged to get some impression of order in my head I began looking over the loose dirt for footprints to follow. After I found them I took off my own shoes and placed them beside Toph's before I began to make my way though the flowerbed, careful not to crush anything. The earth was cool and crumbly under my feet – an interesting sensation and not completely unpleasant. I followed the footprints until I had to gently push my way through the hanging branches of a weeping willow.

She was there, leaning up against the trunk of the tree, the long shadows cast by the limp branches masking her presence in the shrubbery. Her face was cast down, draping her hair over her eyes. I hesitated slightly; something was really bothering her. Her bare feet dug into the earth as I drew closer, but other than that she was motionless.

By the time I had closed the distance and sat down next to her my priorities had changed. "Hey."

"Hey," she said back, her voice missing all of the usual strength and energy it usually had. A man passed by on the path I had just turned off, not noticing the shoes on the path or too busy to care.

"I was looking for you." She just sat there silently, her steady breathing the only indication she was not a statue. "What's up?"

For a long time there was nothing but the sound of the wind in the trees and the distant sound of the city. Somewhere near a bird chirped, drawing a twittering reply from just above us. "I was thinking."

"That's always a good thing," I said, letting my own head rest against the rough bark. "About anything in particular?" I expected that I would have to wriggle the answer out of her over the course of many hours, but she was unusually forthcoming.

"I think I was a hypocrite, or am? I don't know," she said, sounding tired of asking herself this same question. "Maybe both."

I twisted and ducked my head a little so that I could see her face beneath her splayed hair. She looked okay, not pale or sick looking. Well, she looked a little – down, but other then that see seemed fine. "A hypocrite how? You didn't do anything."

"I was a hypocrite, and I always hated that about people."

"I'm sorry, I'm not sure what you mean. When were you a hypocrite?" I asked genuinely confused.

"Back in the oasis, before Aang freaked out. I told you that you were being an idiot for thinking you were a monster. I yelled at you for beating yourself up over it and now …"

"Oh?"

"Yeah," she mumbled softly. She buried her toes in the soft dirt beneath us and leaned her head back against the tree to relax a little more, even though the tension stayed in her body. I took a second to search her face and I found anger at... herself, I believed. There was also something else, something that took me a second to figure out because it wasn't an emotion I had seen in her many times; she was afraid.

I knew what was bothering her now. It was something that had haunted me also – in one form or another, and now it was my turn to talk some sense into her like she had done to me. "The Gel-Hassad are not all monsters, and neither are you."

"You knew!" she accused in a voice that startled the birds from the trees. She was now upright and facing me.

"I knew you had some Gel-Hassad blood in you, yes. But I didn't intentionally keep it from you. I was trying to figure out how to tell you without making you feel like you do now."

Her head was tilted to me just a bit and I saw her toes bite into the earth a little deeper, almost as if drawing strength. When she spoke again her voice was back to being doubtful of herself, but it also held an edge of something that might have been betrayal. "What were you going to say?"

" I was going to say that you were right before; that no one is a monster simply because they share something with monsters." I thought her eyes softened a little and pushed on. "Monsters are people of either race who abandon their souls. They are demons in the most pure sense of the word. They hate and rage at everyone, blame every wrong in their lives on everyone else, and think that exacting some sort of revenge on the people will bring them their wants. Life has no meaning for them other than to be put to their own gain. The Master seems to be one of them; a few of the past Incarna and some Gel-Hassad are, too. But that doesn't mean that _we_ are simply because we share roots with them."

"I didn't say that," she said flatly, but she was speaking normally again. I breathed a slight sigh of relief. I was thinking that she might have thought I had been keeping something from her before. I never wanted her to have a reason to doubt me or think I might betray her, because there was no way I ever could.

I grinned back at her. "I paraphrased."

"So your idea is...we're not monsters?"

"Sort of," I said slowly. Okay, let's hope this sounded like it did in my head this morning. "There will always be someone who calls us monsters, or demons or whatever else they can think of … and from their perspectives they may even be right."

Her forehead crinkled. "You started out good, but I think you lost it again."

"No, I know what I'm talking about this time," I said quickly, and got a raised eyebrow in response. "Like I said; it's a matter of perspectives. Alright, let me put it a different way: Have you ever heard the story of Dimitrik the Bloody?"

"Yes," she said, clearly not seeing how it was relevant but going with it anyway. "The tutors that my parents hired told me about him. He was supposed to be some Duke or something a thousand years ago who wanted to be the emperor of the entire Earth Kingdom."

"Kind of," I chuckled. "Four and a half thousand years ago when every city in the Earth Kingdom had its own King, he was given a piece of land to watch over. It had a few small towns and he even had a modest castle, but he wanted more. First he crossed the borders within his own kings land and overthrew the Duke next to him, and took his land and warriors to fortify his own army. Later he even marched on his own King, then the next one over, and the next one."

"I remember that," she said. I think she was starting to see where I was going because she was obviously calmer and a few steps back to herself. "He got a whole lot of land and a huge army before they stopped him. He even had some weird thing about making all of his boots and other leather things out of the skins of his enemies, "

"Yup, and don't forget that lovely house keeping tip of his; mount the decomposing heads of fallen kings on your throne room wall."

"I remember that," she said, pulling a face. "Wouldn't that smell? How could he stand it?"

A broken smile fought its way past the bile in my throat. "He liked the smell. Sitting there with the rotting heads of his enemies around him told him that he was alive, that he was that much closer to ruling the Earthkingdom; and sometimes it was even an excitement for him."

She frowned. "I don't remember hearing that. Unless … oh."

" Yeah," I muttered darkly. "He was a Gel-Hassad Incarna, one of the few who lasted a bit longer than most. He was a monster. Many even called him the Demon King, but I am not like him and neither are you. All of the Gel-Hassad who followed him and believed in what he was doing, hoping that he could being their race back into it's 'proper' place in the world, were just as bad. But you aren't them either."

"Sounds like he deserved what he got," she said and I had to nod. I didn't remember much about him other then his weird fixation with blood. But I remember learning that he was finally killed by a mob. I got a feeling that the mob was lead by Yasuragi.

"Pretty much," I said. "You can name ten of the worst people in the world, and I guarantee you that at least four of them will either be Gel-Hassad or other versions of me."

"After that, I'd believe it." I felt a lot of the pressure in my chest lift when she laughed like she always did.

" There are many differences between just people and monsters, but most of them are just how you look at it. Like for instance, seven thousand years ago, Vernis Demilo; the man who lead his horde of warriors across the land that is now the Earth Kingdom, pushing the Southern Water tribe from its edge until they were totally in the Antarctic? Was he a monster? He lead thousands of raids against the Water Tribesmen, crushing their resistance in a matter of weeks and driving them from the land that once belonged to his grandfather. Hundreds died resisting him, and he burned many villages and many cursed him as a murder and a monster."

"I remember hearing about him; he did some pretty terrible things."

"Yes, but do you remember why?"

"Not really," Toph admitted.

"His people were dying," I said bluntly. "When the Water Tribe had come there seventy years before they had taken a large piece of his grandfather's land, and that lost land meant lost recourses for trading and building as well as lost farm land. He and his father tried their hardest to make things work because neither of them wanted a war. But eventually their people grew to be too many and the kingdoms around them would not give them anymore help, so it was down to either war or letting their people starve to death in the coming winter."

"Some of the things that he had to do were monstrous, and the Water Tribe called him a monster for a long time after it, but he was not because he left war as a last resort and only did what he had to. Sometimes knowing who is a monster and who is not is very difficult, because a lot of the times they can look like the same thing at first glance. What makes the difference is what kind of person they are; their morals, and what they fight for."

"It's actually really complicated," I said, receiving a snort that said that was an understatement. "Sometimes you can become a monster for the right reasons, or a hero for the wrong ones. But I think most people can tell what is right and wrong--it's just the little compromises that doom a good person. But like you said, the mere fact that you are asking yourself if you are some kind of demon or inhuman beast makes that untrue."

"You are Toph Bei Fong, one of the most powerful benders in history and you use that power for the right reasons. You are strong and stubborn when it comes to something you believe in and that is one of the qualities I like best in you." A light blush rose on her cheeks, but I continued. She needed to hear this. "Yes, you may have a mixed past and you can do things that no pure-blooded human your size could, but you're the bravest, most beautiful woman I have ever met and I wouldn't change a damn thing about you and screw anyone who thinks you're anything but."

I rambled down to a stop and felt my own face heat up at what I had let slip in. Oh well, at least she wasn't hitting me or looking all depressed anymore. _I'll just deal with whatever she has to throw at me … I hope. Oh, I hope this doesn't hurt. _

"Sorry I got all pathetic there." I let out a sigh of relief and slumped back against the tree. Hurray, she wasn't going to bury me alive!

"No problem," I said waving it off. "I was just repaying the favor."

"You know of course if you ever tell anyone about this I will do horrible things to you?"

"Without a doubt," I said grinning. "But I am curious. What brought all of this on? How did you figure it out?"

"Well, even though no one seems to remember, I am blind." I nodded, pretending like it hadn't slipped my mind again. "So, when I look at someone I don't see faces or things like that. I see body weight, the ripples of pressure going up and down limbs. I can even tell when someone nods just by the subtle shifts in their weight."

" Anyway," she continued, cutting off her explanation. I had actually found it really interesting; just trying to understand how the world would look to … oh, I get it now. "I always knew some people felt different, heavier and moving like their skeleton is just a _little_ off, but I never really thought anything about it until we met that guy in the Lotus Garden. You know the desk guy you pretended to be a Gel-Hassad to so that you could talk to Piando? Well, I got to thinking last night and it all started to make sense. He felt exactly like this one second cousin guy I know." I snorted into the back of a fist as I tried to pretend I was just coughing, and she slapped me upside the head.

"Ow," I said as I pretended to hold my head in pain.

"I didn't hit you hard, get over it."

"Meanie," I muttered. "So anyway, this cousin guy of yours?"

"Jai-Roh," Toph replied. "He would show up every so often and he would sometimes have a whole bunch of body guards or a few women with him. He never seemed to go anywhere alone, and there was always a different woman. My mother didn't seem to approve of somethings he did, but then she didn't really approve of everything I did." I felt a sudden urge to slap her mother.

"Are you sure he was one of the People?"

"People?" she questioned interestingly.

"Who?" I asked. Oh yeah, I had said that. "I dunno; I think that's what they call themselves."

"Okay," she shrugged. "So, although she didn't seem to really like him, my mother always made time for him. A messenger or a letter carrier would come with word of his arrival and she would drop everything to meet him, no matter what else was going on. I remember that we once skipped going to a political party at the Earth King's palace to meet with him. Father was really mad that day, but like always he didn't say anything about it. I asked one of the servants who had been with the family back before they were even married and apparently it was actually a condition of their marriage that the family would come first; no questions, no exceptions."

"Ahh, yeah," I said understanding. "Although its a little original, at least from the little bit I know of Gel-Hassad customs, thats not all that uncommon."

" Well, I thought it was weird, but nothing to really worry about. I was just curious at the time," she said in an offhanded voice. "I though it was weirder that he took _her_ last name when they were married."

"Why?"

She turned and faced me, silent for a second, like she was waiting for a joke.

"What?

"Seriously?" she asked. Whatever was up was truly surprising her.

"I guess?"

"Most of the time its the woman who takes the mans name."

"Really?"

"Yes," she said surely. "Why don't you know this?"

"I dunno," I shrugged. "I've never had a last name."

"What? Really? You mean your just Sokka? Nothing else?" she said sitting up straighter.

"No," I said. "In the Water Tribe we don't really have family names. Its traditional for us to introduce ourselves with our fathers name; like 'I am Sokka, son of Hakoda. How do you do?'"

"I never knew that," she confessed, kicking her legs back and lounging back against the tree.

"I never thought to say anything," I said. "My father told me about family names, so I knew that Bei Fong was a family name, but I don't know the little things about it." I logged it away and couldn't help a few thoughts bubbling up. If she did like me that way, and we got that far, and a few years went by… might I become Sokka Bei Fong? I coughed embarrassedly, rubbing a hand over my face as my heart pounded. Don't think that, you dumb ass.

"What are you thinking now?"

Oh, damn. Damn her heart reading stuff! I couldn't admit what I was thinking right then, that would just be too embarrassing. But, there were a few other things that I had just thought of. "I was just thinking that a few random references to people who lived a few thousand years ago isn't going to completely convince you that neither of us are monsters."

" It helped," she said shrugging it off. "And I don't think you're a monster."

"That exactly my point." I leaned back against the tree again and looked out at the flowers peeking through the hanging branches, listening to the sounds of the city in the background. A squirrel-mouse darted out from under a bush and froze, watching us for a moment until it ran up a red barked tree. "I may not be a monster, but I can … or I think its better to say I will do monstrous things."

"Do I have to smack the sense back into you again?" she threatened.

"Then I'd have to do it right back," I said flatly. She leveled a look at me that dared me to try and I couldn't fight off the grin. "Remember when I told you about Genzou? I said that she was the spirit of the Futures That Might Be? Well she opened that happy little door for me a few times, and each time I saw myself doing things."

"Isn't this the little cat bastard that we don't trust worth a damn? Why the hell would you trust anything she shows you?"

"Because she has no powers over what I have already seen," I said.

Toph thought about that for a time, frowning a little. "Okay, try that again."

" She can open up the possibilities of the future to me and let me frolic around it the fire and all, but she has no control over what I _remember_ of our encounter."

"Alright, I'm following so far."

I sighed deeply, remembering it again and only the same jumbled mess. "I have two sets of memories now. The first is what I saw originally, and I only know that because I can remember thinking about how it would affect things. The second set of memories is new, as I have no recollection of ever considering them before. Thing is, they are both so real remembering my reactions to them is the only way I can tell which one is the real one... or the original one?"

"So what, you remember doing the same thing twice?" Toph asked, following along so far.

"Not really," I said. "When I looked into the future, it wasn't a definite thing. What I see is a possibility; the most probable possibility, and now I remember seeing two entirely different things at the same time, and it wasn't like that before."

"Okay, I don't know much about this spirit crap of yours," she told me. "Your going to have to tell me what that all means."

"It means that I'm going to do something that has never been done before, at least not to this scale." Toph growled at me threateningly and I laughed. "What I mean is that I am going – well I suppose I have already done it in the future since I can see both possibilities now, but the point is I am going to somehow take the infinite possibilities of the future and change them."

"Don't we do that all the time?" she asked. "Like you said, everything is a matter of what we might do; possibilities. Aren't we always changing them?"

" Yes, that's true," I admitted. "But I am going to do something nearly impossible. I'm not going to be making some off-the-wall choice or anything like that; I'm actually going to fight destiny and change the possibilities of the future, even as I was viewing them. What I mean is that I am going to change things so much and in such a way that what I saw a few days ago is no longer the most possible like it was then – meaning that I remember looking at what I saw the first time as well as the future where I changed the most possible outcome."

"That still makes very little sense," she sniffed. "but basically your saying your going to take control of your future, so what?"

"Not just my future," I said, trying to explain things that the human in me barely understood. "Everyone's. I am going to be rewinding the entire world and forcing it onto another path of time."

Toph turned to me what I said that, meaning that I might have just made my point. "You're going to rebuild the future?"

"'Reorder' is a better term, but yeah. I'm going to change the probabilities of reality itself."

"Damn," she whispered, finally getting the full force of what I had said.

"And that makes what I can do monstrous, but it does not make me a monster. Do you get it now?" Toph just nodded, going over what all of this meant. "And you're like me; you can do things that some people will call monstrous, but you aren't one."

"I suppose," she mumbled.

"Toph!" I shouted, getting a dirty look from her. "Are you getting all weak and pathetic again?"

"I'm not weak!" she hollered loud enough for the people outside the walls to hear. She was facing me again and breathing hard, looking like she might smack me.

"And I thought I just proved that neither of us are monsters."

"Fine," she conceded, still looking dangerous – she was really pretty like that. "I'm not a monster, even if some idiots think I am."

"And what are you going to do if said idiots call you a monster?" I asked innocently.

"I'll bust'em up," she growled and I roared with laughter.

"That's my little Warrior Toph," I said without thinking, pulling her into an gleeful hug. It was about a second before I realized what I had done and pulled away, looking for an angry fist, but finding none. Toph was fairly red in the face and was slightly wide eyed with surprise.

I coughed into my hand a few times and she turned away from me for a second. Brilliant, why don't you go jump under one of those bloody rock train thingies they have, they look nice and smashy, too. Toph finally turned back, most of the extra colour gone from her face. We sat in silence for a few moments after that. I wanted to tell her a few things, and maybe ask her a few too … but she had other ideas.

"Why are you going to do this? Changing reality I mean?" she questioned, her voice a little unsteady.

"I don't know," I said honestly, while trying to get my heart to slow down. "I don't even know what new possibility I'm going to bring up. I can feel a second set of memories and when I remember what happened that day I get a jumble of a dozen things that make no sense and a feeling that I'm not ready to know it all yet."

"Not ready? Who the hell is telling you your not ready?"

I chuckled. "Funny you should ask, because I think I figured it out this morning." I started going over what I knew. "I have a link with the Archive, which is apparently pretty much like an extension of my own mind. I don't know how it works, to tell you the truth. The White Wolf who seems to always be with Genzou, either bound to her somehow or voluntarily. Mouretsu seems a little like me, and outwardly he seems to want to help me, or at least his people – which would make me expendable. And Yasuragi who wants to kill me because she's under the impression that I an endangering the balance of the world, even as her Jenkotsu screw with that same balance. Plus who the hell knows what the Master wants. But you know what I just figured out?"

"No?"

"I'm over-thinking it all!" I shouted in relief. "It's so much simpler then it looks. Oh, sure it's still as confusing as ever, but I can remove a few of the suspects."

"That's good?" she said unsurely.

"Very good! I was thinking it all over this morning when I was out and about with Piando-sensei and I think I understand it a little better. I was panicking and I wasn't thinking it through fully."

"You going to get to a point?"

" Alright, let's start with the Archive. It, like the White Wolf, is not evil or anything like that. Its a bloody library! Well, a library that can swallow your mind if you ask too many questions, but a library just the same. I don't have to fear it. It's there to help me and since I'm the Incarna I have the top access level and no one can use it against me without me knowing or at least feeling when they put anything into action."

"Okay, that one less thing trying to kill you."

" And then there's the Wolf," I said. "I had it right the first time. He isn't evil or trying to kill me or anything like that. He is the power of the Incarna and I kept forgetting that during all this Mouretsu and Genzou crap. He is a part of me, and the only question I have with him is whether to take him over or let him take me over … or to do something else completely."

"Yeah, you said something like that before; something about you giving it tact," Toph said. I must be getting better with my explanations, because she doesn't look so lost this time.

" I think there is more to it than that," I said. "There are a few things that don't seem right, like why is he a wolf?" Toph shrugged. "I didn't think about the why until just recently and it made so much sense. I had been wondering if both Genzou and Mouretsu had been lying to me, but then I asked myself _why_ he was a wolf."

"And?" she prompted.

"What is the thing about me that defines me, and guides all my choices?"

"I don't know."

"Yes, you do. You're the one who said it back when we we're having this talk the last time in the oasis." I smiled widely. "What is the thing about who I am that sticks out the most?"

She thought back, her forehead crinkling in concentration. "I was telling you that you were being an idiot; that no monster would run themselves into the ground for other people."

"Exactly," I said slyly. Getting a raised eyebrow I pushed on. "Protect the pack."

"Oh, damn," she mumbled. "So you being all stupid and killing yourself made it a wolf?"

" I know! Wait, no! It's a wolf because I couldn't have abandoned you guys or not gone for that prize money even if I wanted to," I said. "I first thought of it when Piando-sensei said that I appear as who I am inside, rather then what I looked like when I was in the Archive. So it got me to thinking, what if other people than me were like that? I never figured out what that would mean for the rest of them, but I think that means that the White Wolf is a reflection of me."

"I see," she said slowly.

"I don't think it's evil or anything like that." I said happily. "Since it's the power of the Incarna, technically I think I have been interacting with him every time I use the power."

"So, he's the good guy?" she asked, getting it slowly. "So what are you going to do when you meet him?"

"I have no idea. Just because he isn't evil, doesn't mean that I'm not being manipulated into the wrong decision by Genzou or Mouretsu," I admitted. "He's just as much a victim as I am, I think. And Yasuragi is just plain crazy. But the thing that really bothers me though is why, in forty thousand years, has no one gotten a fifty-fifty shot right?"

"Uh," groaned Toph. I looked over and she was spacing out. I laughed a little and poked her in the shoulder. I guess being a Earth Bending prodigy didn't make listening to a guy ramble on about Spirit Shaping any easier.

"I'm done talking about that," I said to her glazed face, getting a little life to come back. I watched grinning as the glimmer came back into her misty green eyes.

"Sorry," she said, not really sounding it. "I guess I just don't find most of that as interesting as you do."

"Meh," I shrugged. "I don't think I could get Katara to sit through it either."

"Probably not," she agreed, then she went right for the vain. "So are you going to tell me why you were such a wreck when you first came over here?"

"Uh, yeah about that," I started nervously. Oh no! I had forgotten everything I had though of to say on the way over here talking so long! I'm doomed!

"You're getting all jumpy again," she commented plainly, no doubt feeling my nervousness. Ahhh! What do I do!

"I was, um, thinking before I got over here."

" You and your thinking again," she mocked and I pretended to be offended. It was easier to stay calm if I joked around then if I let my fears get away from me. Just breath and don't do anything_ too_ stupid. "So what did you come up with?"

Damn, damn! What do I say now? If I lead in too much and … I breathed out slowly, trying to calm myself. I was over thinking all that crap about Mouretsu and Genzou, and just making a total mess of myself over it. And now I think I was doing the same thing again. _Just speak what you mean, and whatever will happen will happen. I may be terrified that she will hate me – and she might. But if I do nothing I will hate myself too; and the worst thing is that I care about her and if she doesn't feel anything for me, then I will just have to try harder so that she will notice me that way. _

I ripped my focus from the single red flower the was peeking between the hanging branches and turned to face her, drawing strength from those misty eyes that always seemed to entrance me. "I had a bit of an argument with the spirit of the Oceans."

"You fought with the ocean?" she snorted, her eye glimmering with mirth again. "You just get into all kinds of trouble don't you?"

"Actually, he was there to tell me that I was being an idiot."

" If you really needed that Ocean to tell you that, you're beyond hope."

"Ouch, my feelings," I whined. I knew that she was just joking around and I could appreciate a good sense of humor, after all I am a joker myself. "And it wasn't just him, the Moon was there too."

She laughed and shook her head. "You know, when I first meet Aang I though nothing I could ever do after that could possibly be anymore strange. But then you went and dragged me into a conversation you had with the Ocean and the Moon."

"Yup," I said happily. "Thats what a life around me entails. Laughs, jokes, small talk with conceptual gods and a little blackmail."

Her eyes flashed and Toph's grin grew into something that would send grown men running away crying. "Blackmail?" she asked sweetly.

"Oh, yes," I said offhandedly with an uncaring sniff. "Didn't I mention it? I knew La – the spirit of the oceans, back when he was still human and making a complete ass of himself."

"Oh, this is sweet," she drawled in an evil voice. "What can we blackmail the Oceans for?"

"With what I know," I started softly. Then in a loud shout: "Anything we want!"

Toph cackled madly, and I joined in with what I though was a devious laugh of my own. I was fairly sure a bolt of lightening flashed right then, and if it didn't, it should have.

The peel of thunder rolling across the sky right then made both of us jump.

We were silent for a second, just facing one another. Toph tilted her head at me in a suspicious manner. "Did you do that?"

"I couldn't have," I said, looking up into the clear sky. "It must have just been someone banging stuff around."

"Like what, mountains?"

"I dunno," I muttered, looking around the garden for anything that could have made that noise. It had sounded exactly like thunder, but it couldn't have been.

"Whatever," said Toph shrugging it all off. "So what was this about blackmail?"

"You are enjoying that way too much," I pointed out.

"Well you start talking about blackmail, what did you think I would do?" she asked in a deceptively sweet voice.

"Blackmailing two gods does sound fun," I said slowly, going over the possibilities. I did have enough to pull off quite a bit with La. "But it's what they wanted to talk to me about that's important right now."

"Oh?" she asked, clearly disappointed that the blackmailing talk was over.

"Yes, apparently – according to them I've been quiet a bit of an idiot," I said, trying my hardest to keep my pulse down and my hands from shaking.

"What about this time?" she asked in amused voice.

"People around me," I said slowly. The grin faded from her face as she thought about what that could mean. "I was always freaking out so much about what could happen. I was wasting a lot of time panicking rather then doing anything about it."

"Oh?" she repeated, her voice shaking slightly. Was it excitement or fear, or both? Was she afraid I might like her because she didn't think of me the same way?

"Yeah," I continued. Now or never. "What would you say if I asked you if you'd like to do this more often? Sitting and just talking about whatever; just you and me?"

"Like how?"

"Like getting to know each other better?" I said nervously. Damn man, just say it! "Like maybe a date?"

" I'd say it's about damn time," she shouted, flinging her arms over hear head in relief. She seemed to be buzzing and about ready to pounce. She was grinning madly and looking like she was bouncing up and down even as she was seated. Wait, '_it's about damn time_', did that mean what I thought it did?

"Is that a yes?"

"Hells yeah!" she yelled gleefully, a goofy grin I knew well – from myself – plastered on her face. "I was almost starting to think that Katara was full of it."

" Katara?" I asked weakly, even as the rest of me felt like it was going to explode. I felt like I wanted to run in circles screaming until the sun went down. _It wasn't a no!_ She said hells yeah! I have a chance, now all I have to do is not screw it up.

"Yeah, I was really starting to get tired of all her plans and ideas. It really didn't seem to be doing anything," she said – well almost yelled as she was clearly not too calm. Maybe she'd like to run screaming with me? No, bad first date. Wait a second, something she said didn't seem to add up.

"So you were planning, as in thinking ahead and plotting, before you acted?" I asked slowly.

"Yup," she quipped, obviously seeing where I was going "I was all smart and stuff."

"I didn't mean anything like that," I said defensively waving a hand. "I just always thought you'd be more … well, forward."

"That was my original plan, but then Katara figured it out when I was getting ready to talk to you and told me some stuff," she said, already seeming to get a hold of herself. "She said that you were still just getting over a girl that died and what you needed right then was a friend. She said I should wait till later for other things."

I thought back to when we had first added the little power house before me to the team. It was barely a few weeks after I thought Yue had died completely and I was a total wreck. For a month after that I threw myself into chores and training with my boomerang just to get through the day without breaking down. Yup, not the best time to be in a relationship. "Smart girl."

"Yeah," she said, still unable to sit still. "And then Aang found out and we had to shut him up a few times."

"How'd he know before me anyway?" I said, trying to get an answer to the offending question. "I mean really, I knew he liked Katara before he even did. Sure I watched him like a paranoid brother, but he was fairly clueless."

"He overheard us planning one time," she said, then pulled a face. "Okay Katara planning and me shooting down half of the crap she said I should do. I was glad for her advice, but some of the things she said were just too girly for me."

I laughed deeply as Toph stood up. I got up with her and, thinking that we were going to head back to the Lotus Garden or at least around the garden to keep talking, I pulled back the limp branches like a gentlemen and extravagantly bowed her though the opening. "There's one thing, though," she said, playfully trying to kick me for being chivalrous.

"Yes," I said, only too agreeable right now. She said hells yeah!

"I've been dying to do this for months now," she said slightly softer, her blush rising again. She came closer and I froze, unsure what she was planning but trusting her anyway. She stopped just before me and seemed to be conflicted about something. Then she huffed in annoyance and reached up, grabbed the collar of my Fire Nation shirt and pulled me down to her level. The next thing I knew she came forward, my eyes crossing for a second as I tried to follow her.

And then I forgot everything.

The hand on my shirt was firm, but her lips were shy and softly seeking. I wasn't too good at this kissing stuff yet, and I didn't think Toph had had too much practice, but I don't think either of us thought it was lacking. I felt, as well as heard a little moan of pleasure from my little warrior Toph just before she pulled away, letting my shirt go.

I thought I should say something, at least I think I did. I was still reliving it and thinking about how soft her lips were. But I'm pretty sure I said something like, "Darb?"

Toph blushed a little more before she figured out where we were again. She took a step over to pull the branches aside herself and holding them for me to go though, which I did without argument. "Wow, Snoozles … we'll have to do that again."

* * *

Jade Knight - Richard Caine - Kitty

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	19. The Rushing Dawn

In a cold wet graveyard on a cold wet day, a hundred people gather to mourn. A random priestess is standing over the grave as the casket is lowered into the ground. At fist nothing looks out of the ordinary, until one takes a second look at the casket. It is wrapped in steel plating and chains.

"Dust to dust, ashes to ashes. We deliver one Jade Knight to eternal slumber."

"I'm not dead! LET ME OUT!!!"

"He was so young!" cried on little Avatar fan.

Richard snorts. "No he wasn't"

"Younger then you, old man!"

"Dead people don't talk," Richard shouted, throwing his umbrella drink into the grave. A new one appeared out of no where.

"All you had to do was update," said someone in a sad voice. "IT;S ALMOST BEEN A YEAR!!!"

"I was busy, but I'm almost done!" The sounds of a pen frantically scribbling could be heard coming from the chained casket.

"HERE!" boomed a voice, as a green gauntlet broke though the top of the casket, a bunch of papers held tight.

Cheers and merry making followed the funeral procession out of the graveyard.

"Is someone going to let me out?"

"Probably not," Richard mumbled as he walked out and locked the gate behind him.

* * *

**Written and read best in 1/2 format (centering seems to be broken today... sorry)**

* * *

**Sokka: Master of the Black Sword**

Author: The Jade Knight

Co-Author: Richard Caine

* * *

**-The Resistance Saga-**

**Chapter 19**

-

The Story of Sokka

The Rushing Dawn

-

We slipped back into the Lotus Garden, all sneaky-like though the same back door. It was about a quarter after twelve and since they were just starting to move lunch out we had to cut our way between dozens of cooks and waiters. Toph held my hand tightly in her own and laughed madly as she lead me through the labyrinth of people. I couldn't hold in my own giddy laughter so we drew more then a few dirty looks as we ran. My heart was beating a blissful rhythm against my chest while I followed my little Warrior Toph as she battled her way through the vile forces of the appetizers.

"Hey, your not supposed to be back here!"

"Sorry," I shouted back over my shoulder.

"I'm not," called Toph.

"That not nice," I said breathlessly as we rounded a corner and stopped for a second as a convoy of waiters with the lunch rush went back into the dining room.

"You can take care of the nice," she said waving her hand at me. I caught her waving hand and now I had her trapped. I don't know what I planned on doing but I was still running on the highest adrenalin high I had ever had and it didn't matter. "What are you doing?"

"I don't know," I said honestly. I was just toying with a few ideas when she went up on her tip-toes and gave me a little kiss. All my thoughts went into the soup and I was putty once again.

"I am never gunna get tired of that," she said mischievously. I nodded my agreement and she pulled me along again. I was vaguely aware that we had gone back into the dining room and we seemed to be looking for something.

"Having fun?" I turned around and Piando-sensei was standing right there smiling knowingly.

"Yes," I admitted, still unable to remove the perma-smile. Wait, I was forgetting something. I was supposed to be doing something right away and I don't think it involved Toph. Too bad, I'm sure it would be a lot more fun with her there. And besides she just said hells yeah! I don't want to go anywhere else right now.

"Did you forget our meeting?" Piando asked kindly. I frowned at him for a second before it fell back together.

"Oh, right." A few hours ago I had wanted nothing more then to go talk with this other Incarna; but now? Now I wanted to go where Toph was.

"What, _oh right_?" asked Toph suspiciously, still holding onto my hand.

"Uh," I mumbled. "I kinda have to go with Piando-sensei. He's supposed to be helping me to get some answers about this Incarna stuff."

"I see," she said slowly.

"I really did just want to lazy around today, but it doesn't look like were going to have the time. I need to go talk to … someone like me, and then we all have to sit down for planning how we are going to deal with those iron-clad ships on their way here right now. And then we have the Earth Jenkotsu to worry about later."

"Alright," she said letting go of me. Cold air rushed into the space where her hand had been and suddenly I wanted it back. "But you have to promise me you won't bottle everything up again, no matter what you might find out, okay?" She pointed a threatening finger at me.

"Okay, but you have to promise me that also. No more beating ourselves up. Agreed?"

"Agreed," she said with a strong nod that splashed her black hair around.

"I'll see you later," I said as gathered up my courage and reached out and pushed her hair back behind her ears, letting me see those pretty mist eyes. I grinned widely what she flushed before I followed Piando back through the doors to the back of the Parlor. "Could you find out Katara and Aang went? I shouldn't be too long and we need to get planning right away."

I went through the doors and lost sight of her. I forced my focus back to my own footsteps as we made our way back through the maze of waiters and cooks. Pots and pans boiled with all kinds of soups and gravies on top of every oven we passed. A few men who I assumed had seen me and Toph make our great escape glared at me, or at least they started until they saw who I was following.

"Where are we going?" I asked. I was really kind of curious. He had hinted that I would have to enter the Archive to meet Vashti, but how the hell was I supposed to do that. I didn't expect that their was a marked door to the deepest reaches of the Spirit Realm in the back room of the Lotus Garden …

Piando stopped suddenly at a blank wall and wrote out a few shaping glyphs. I watched his hands move and recognized a very complicated unlocking charm. A portion of the wall abruptly began to shimmer and he just walked through what appeared to be a wall.

What the bloody hell was this?

I looked up and down the hall quickly for any lurkers, but I suppose Piando took care of that before because there were none. I turned back to the blank wall that was apparently only pretending and tried to force myself to walk through it. Would I just splat on the surface? I hoped not. Well, Piando-sensei has never lead me wrong yet. I closed my eyes and stepped forward. I felt a tingle roll over my body that meant that I had just passed through a shielding, and opened my eyes again.

I was now standing in a landing made of cold gray stone. Piando was smiling in the Gel-Hassad way again holding a burning torch that he got from the small line on the wall. There were still four more burning in the brackets with a further five empty. I had to laugh a little at myself. "Everyone has an interesting reaction the first time they go through," he said, obviously enjoying it too much.

"Yeah, alright I freaked out," I admitted grudgingly, "can we continue on now?"

"Its fine with me," he said, that little hint of amusement draining from his voice quickly as he began to descend down a staircase that had been behind him. I follow Piando-sensei down the narrow spiraling stairway. I'm not sure how far down we're going, but I don't think it can be too far. Every step we take on the damn stone echo's up and down the stairway and off the walls, making it impossible to guess how many there are. I run my hand over the scarred stone walls as we descend; I think this place was fairly old – not ancient mind you, but it very well could have been built about the same time as this Vashti was alive.

Almost as if reading my thoughts Piando speaks up from in front of me, backlite by the torch he carried. "This place was build around the same time that the Lotus Garden was, by an all Gel-Hassad construction force of course. It has had various names and purposes over the years and the ownership has also been passed around the higher ranking members to throw off suspicions. In addition to that, it also has a great many very complicated and rare protection and seclusion spells over it. We have gone to many lengths to keep this place secret. I doubt even your small friend knew this place was under her very feet"

"I dunno," I said, speaking just to throw of the creepy atmosphere – was that a spider! "She's very surprising sometimes."

He laughed at that. "I look forward to seeing that side of her. In a time like this we need as many surprising people as we can get."

"Yeah, I suppose we do," I said, letting the weight I felt on my shoulders pass into my voice. Very soon things were going to all come together and then who knows what will happen.

"We have arrived." I looked up and saw a flickering golden light just around the last curve. It was painfully bright but it also might mean that I was close to the answers I needed so badly. I had to stop myself from stepping on Piando-sensei's heels as we got closer, and closer. Finally Piando moved to the side and I could see our new surroundings.

I hadn't felt much more then a little anxiety on the way down. I was only excited about getting some clear answers, but now that was the farthest thing from my mind. I couldn't bring myself to utter a sound in this room. The air was warmed and scented with burning incense. I walked though the doorway, my footfalls almost offensive to the tomblike silence.

It was a room made of immaculately white marble; floors, ceilings and all. There were sixteen pillars spaced at prefect intervals around the large round room, and standing between each set were people dressed in long concealing robes. I knew an unseemed Gel-Hassad body when I saw it, elegant black and white robes or not. Eight hoods cast shadows over eight faces; their black skin highlighted by the red flames burning in sixteen oil lamps above the pillars.

I walked forward into the room, my breathing sounding unnaturally loud in the silent space. Eight sets of crossed pupils followed my every movement as I stepped down into the slightly inlaid floor. There was something here; something that pulled at my very core.

Before me, in the dead center of the room was a black lotus made of unrefined hassad yavim laid into the floor. It was plain in its design, but clearly cut with much care. It felt like this room was suffocating, I wanted to get as far away from it as possible, but there was also something pulling me forward.

Written in the intricate and flowing script of the old ones in the black stone was a name; Vashti Ghin. I stopped before the black lotus and knelt as a wave of … something I could never hope to describe flowed through me. I could remember her when she was a little girl; the way she loved daises and had a crush on the blue eyed boy next door. She lived in a small town – barely a population of a hundred people, most of them Gel-Hassad. She went to a one room school house, and then ran to her grandmothers house every day.

I gently ran my fingers over the dates written there, an empty feeling in my stomach like I had gotten to the top of the staircase before I thought I should have, and that last step that was supposed to be there was just gone, letting me fall.

She met the man who she would one day call 'husband' when she was forty seven, still a young age for a Gel-Hassad. Their first date was a walk by a river and then a ride on some of his ranches' horses. They married in the spring six years later and lived together without too many bumps for a further hundred. It was the year of the scorpion when she awoke one night, visions of Genzou and Mouretsu in her dreams.

Fifty four days later Avatar Yasuragi killed her.

I don't know how long I just knelt there, reading those words over and over again. '_Let all who consider themselves of the People, know that Lady Ghin gave her life to give the world the possibility of a future_.'

It was not everyday a man sat before his own grave.

I knew it wasn't exactly _my_ grave, but on another level it was. I could remember watching the sunrise through her eyes. I could remember how she felt the first time she rode a horse or found out that her mother had passed. I could remember so much about her it made sitting here surreal.

"Sokka, are you alright?"

I looked up and saw Piando kneeling across from me, his head also bowed slightly as he read the words there. I was getting pretty good at reading Gel-Hassad emotions, and I think he looked very … solemn sitting there. He must have known her in some manner.

"Is she really..." I couldn't fine the right words and my voice sounded so sharp in here I was afraid I might be disrespectful.

"This room is her tomb," he said softly, as though used to speaking in here. "We were afraid to lay her to rest anywhere unguarded. The hate we personally saw in Yasuragi and her followers as well as the few shrouded details that she told us about the Master made us think that anywhere else might be targeted."

"She would have agreed." Piando nodded and a little of the tension in him seemed to have left him, as if my answer settled something in him. We knelt before the black lotus quietly for another long minute in respect, and then got back to our feet at the exact same time. I said a short prayer that was supposed to tell the spirits of the deceased that we would be fine, and to move on. I didn't even bother wondering about how I knew it, I just accepted it. "So, why are we here? I thought I was supposed to meet with her in the Archive or something."

"You will," Piando said. "The People behind us are all here to assist you in venturing into the Archive for the first time. You are too much for us to bring into the spirit realm ourselves, so you will have to do that part yourself, but we will be able to guide you."

"Alright, when do we go?" I asked. I wanted to get away from this room as soon as I could. There was just something about standing over this tomb that unsettled me very much. Almost as soon as I asked that question the eight robed figures around us began to speak in the old tongue, their voices meshing together perfectly and lowering itself to a low buzz as their hand formed the glyphs for the spell.

"Sokka, before we leave there are several things you must know." Piando spoke with none of the youthful wisdom it usually held, now it was just subdued. "For one thing, none of us will be able to join you. This is a sacred pilgrimage for you alone to embark upon."

"Yeah, I expected something like that." I still felt a little queasy though... or it might be that we we're still standing over my – _Vashti's_ memorial stone.

"And, I feel I need to make an amendment to what I said before concerning how you appear in the archive."

"Oh?"

"Yes," he said as thirteen glyphs activated around us and the flickering light of the room was beginning to swirl as though going down a drain the the middle of the room … right where I was standing. "I told you that you appeared as _what _you were as opposed to how you looked, and that is the truth. But you must also understand that you appear in the most pure essence of what you are, everything all at once and not one piece darkened or faded. It is up to the people who view you to make an opinion of what all of that means, and not everyone understands what they see."

"Why are you telling me this?" I asked suspiciously.

He smiled at me for real again and clasped a green glowing hand onto my shoulder. "Wisdom only comes with age, so the young sometimes act without thinking." The world twisted away much like it had when I had fallen through it when I escaped from Yasuragi. The people, the white marble and even the black lotus all bent around me for an instant before I felt like something had opened up below me. "Go now Sokka, and seek your answers."

I wanted to press him for more about what he had said, but the bit of me that I had come to call the wolf was telling me that if I didn't go right now the spell would fade and with the amount of energy they were pouring into it, this was a now or nothing deal.

I reached out in a way I couldn't even begin to describe and felt around for the tunnel they were creating. Normally one would have to go through extensive meditation and preparation before they could enter the Archive, but since I was all super and awesome I just pulled myself into the portal.

It felt like I was slipping sideways through the world, drifting down through the layers of reality one at a time. I was wrong, this wasn't like the 'step between' crap at all, it was something new. Oh boy, I don't do well with new things lately.

"Eww," I mumbled as I clamped my hand over my nose. It smelt really weird here, almost musky but not something I had ever been around before. The visuals weren't that appeasing either. The walls were curved and black, looking like they had been burrowed out rather then built. I hope whatever built these isn't still around. I almost sighed in relief when I knew that they weren't, the Old Ones had been extinct for … oh.

I looked up and down the short hallway, but it turned on both ends not far away. I stepped closer to get a better look at this material. I was a curious guy and I was the first human here in … had there been any humans here before?

I wasn't to know that yet.

Hurray. I'm already getting tired of this new info stuff. Don't get me wrong, I like how its clearer now, but if says that I'm 'not ready to know that yet' one more time I will smash something. The wall with a pulse distracted me before I could dwell on that thought any longer. Gross, the wall was pulsing. Veins of black and green spiritual energy ran along the walls, crossing themselves many times. It was the blood of this place … it was alive.

Nothing dead could exist in the spirit realm, it was impossible to have a structure of simple materials just plopped right down in the middle. The Old Ones hadn't build this place, they had grown it. It had started out as a small little godseed in the middle of the neutral realm and it had grown into this gargantuan organism over thousands and thousands of years. I reached out through the space between us and tried to touch its mind.

I felt something. I reached a little further, slowly, afraid of scaring it when I got quiet a surprise.

At first I felt … not so much a consciousness, but more like a will. A will to live and grow, to defend itself from predators and it explore its surroundings. It wasn't exactly alive in the sense of possessing a mind of its own – but it was alive; there was no doubt about it now. Just as I was figuring this out, it reached back out to me.

The consciousness felt me looking at it and moved ever so slightly in my direction reaching out one impossible long arm across dimensions to greet me. For an instant I thought about pulling back and running, but the wolf in me said that this thing was just curious. I still wasn't fulling trusting the wolf, but I was willing to give it a chance. I raised my own hand and laid it gently on the wall. It pulsed and moved beneath my fingers, all slimy and gooey before I felt it touch me back.

It wasn't friendly or hostile, it was something less and more then those things. I almost jumped when a connection between us snapped a little. Well now, so this was the thing that made it possible for me to access the Archive anywhere. This being was connected to the Archive – a symbiotic relationship – and when I needed information it acted as the go between. I think I sent a greeting between us and smiled when I felt the wall hum beneath my fingers.

"Do the Gel-Hassad know your alive?" I asked, mostly to myself. This thing was pretty amazing, and I hadn't even gotten to the archive yet.

A second, lower more mournful hum echoed beneath my hand and I frowned. It was in pain, great pain. Someone had hurt it a very long time ago and it hadn't healed properly. It was asking me to help it. How could I not, but I didn't know how. Something almost seemed to nibble on my fingers. My eyes shot open, but I calmed when I realized the slimy wall wasn't eating my hand. I think it was asking me for something.

I opened myself to it a crack to see what it would do, and I felt a little of my void … stuff being drawn into the wall. From beneath my fingertips a smooth, almost skin-like thing started to spread out over the wall. It was a deep rich blue in colour and it gently crept over the vainy open wound looking walls, covering them over faster and faster. I withdrew my hand and began to follow it along. I had to go this way anyway, so I might as well follow this skin I had somehow brought into being.

I turned the corner and found a long almost endless hallway with archways dotting each side at seemingly random intervals. My shoes started to click on the now hardening and not squishy blue floors. I passed a few archways and saw the skin rushing in and out of countless arches fading into distances unknown.

And at the far end of the hallway a single person stood. He was a Gel-Hassad without any kind of seeming up. I stopped and watched, just to see what he would do. I looked down at myself again and I thought I looked like I always do, but if what Piando-sensei had said was true, I should look really weird.

The man turned to face me, his thin swishing robe not covering a whole lot of his black exo-skeleton. His eyes widened as his lips parted slightly in surprise. By human standards he seemed to take it well, but I knew he was thinking about the state of his sanity. He stumbled backwards a step before he took off at a full run, his knees bending at weird angles to make it someone else's problem. Hmm, sweet.

I continued down the hall way for a time, seeing no one else the whole time. Either pretty much no one was in here, or they were avoiding me. Since I couldn't think of a reason why anyone would want to avoid me I assumed the former. But why would they do that? My train of through was derailed when I stepped up to a closed door.

This was the first door I had seen here.

The walls on either side were still all vainy but as I stood there the blue skin raced past and disappeared around another corner. The door before me was wet looking before, and it almost seemed to be breathing. But now it was a gleaming white, almost like the enamel people have on their teeth. It had no door knob or even obvious hinges, but I knew those didn't matter. I let my hand raise and trace a glowing green glyph in the air just in front of the door. It had just faded when a click echoed into a large space behind the door, and the door quietly swung in. I entered the new space and again I was stopped by what I saw in front of me.

The blue skin spread across the endless ceiling, hiding the pulsing gristle. Hundreds of doorways, some a brilliant white like the one behind me and others waiting to be changed ringed the impossibly huge room. It was nearly a full mile from one end of the room to the other, and the floor, if it could be called that was made up of innumerable platforms of black and white stone, each raising and lowing in a rhythm that escaped me before they flashed and shifted colour again. And right in the middle of it all a sphere the size of a building, made out of silvery swirling liquid held in place by nothing; it just floated there.

"Wow," was all I could get out. Ahh, there we go, that explained it. Floating in the air around the sphere was a warning written in glyphs. It basically said that the archive was unstable right now and anyone wishing to enter should use a team. That's why the place was so quiet.

You could get _into_ that silver thing? What the hell for?

In the quiet of the room I could detect the content hum of the superbeing as it's wounds healed over and changed into … whatever it was now. And above it was the sharper sound of the old language being spoken by many voices in a raised and strained fashion. In an open doorway halfway around the huge room several Gel-Hassad seemed to be arguing about something. I would almost be concerned, seeing as I had very little contact with them so far. But they were all the way over there and I had no intentions of staying here long enough for them to get over here.

So, where to now? The sphere? That seemed to be the only logical idea.

I was just trying to figure out how I was supposed to get down to it when the front of blue rolled past me and down into the maze of columns between me and the sphere. The black and white platforms turned a deep black and pulled apart into smaller steps before they started to shift. They all leveled out into a gentle slop with steps a more manageable six feet across leading down the the sphere. I liked the way this was going. I just hoped there weren't many surprises coming. They usually turned out bad.

Looking back over my shoulder I saw that the Gel-Hassad had stopped squabbling and seemed to be staring amazed as I descended the newly crafted steps. What? It wasn't like I was doing this on purpose. I just gave the being a little energy, it was doing all this on its own. I walked down those bloody stairs for what seemed like forever until I was almost at the sphere, but like before the changes got to it before I did.

It shuddered for a moment before it stretched upwards, pausing to shudder a second time, and then it spread out into a towering cylinder rocketing toward the ceiling. I tiled my head back to watch it as it touched the blue ceiling far above my head and then it gently touched down the the floor. It had become a solid silver cylinder going from the ceiling to the floor. Pretty, but I still had no idea what to do with it.

Okay, now what?

I was to touch the Archive.

Alright, but … was this silver tower the Archive? I hadn't an idea what it was supposed to look like, but I suppose it must be. After all there wasn't much else here.

From far behind me the Gel-Hassad standing there seemed to have gained their courage again and were shouting down to me, no doubt making their way down too. I hadn't any time to deal with them, I needed to see Vashti now. So, it was with that thought that I closed the remaining distance to the silver tower, raised a hand, and touched its swirling surface.

I was pulled into the silver so quickly I didn't have time to even gasp. I floated in the black, no sense of up or down. My sense of time was going completely psychotic. Time means little to nothing in the Archive, and I had just fallen down into one of times cracks. I glided silently though the darkness of time, tumbling over myself a hundred times before everything righted itself and I seemed to be raising out of the black.

-

-Story of Arckon-

-

I stood before a window on the ninth floor of the hotel we were using as the base for the Resistance. I was far enough back from the glass that anyone directly below couldn't see me, but I could still see the city. The sun was high in the sky and the entire city was crawling with movement as the time rolled closer to one o'clock. I winced a little as a sharp pain sparked through my head, originating where my eye once was and I reached into my pocket for the bottle of pain killers I carried with me all the time. I popped two and chewed.

The Green Daggers were working out well; I had taken a half dozen of them as well as lieutenant Heida with me this afternoon on the food raid. They had followed my orders without a seconds hesitation and moved with the rest of the team like they had always been together. I would be the first to admit that a food run was not the best time to break in new additions, but we were really pinched for time and … I was getting the feeling that the climax of our resistance was near.

I still couldn't shake the memory of watching the Incarna fighting.

He was so _fast_. There were times when I could barely follow him with my eye, almost as if he were crossing space without actually traversing it. I knew that there was a technique that the Gel-Hassad had that could allow them to do that. I never knew the name of it, as my whole family had been massacred long before I had taken up the scroll; but it was mention in the writings and I had heard my father speaking of it once.

It was supposed to be an escaping technique; but it was very costly. I did not know what, if any special training or requirements were needed, but they must be vast because I have never personally seen Gel-Hassad use it. In the scroll it described the unnamed technique as punching through the world into the void and using that un-space to reach their destination in a instant. But the amount of spirit energy it needed meant that it was designed as an escape route when you know you are defeated even before the fighting starts. It drew so much from the person preforming it that expending the energy for even a single attack or defense would not leave enough for the technique.

But he had not escaped, he had stuttered though the air like a needle threading in and out. He must have invented or known of some variant of the technique. Even if he was to be a hundred times more powerful then the average Shaper the spells he used against the Avatar would have already used an astounding amount of spirit energy. It was conceivable to think that he had used some basic version of the escaping. But I did not know of any other Shaping that could allow him to move like he had.

Unless the scroll was incomplete.

I was under no delusions. I knew that there was much more within the discipline of Spirit Shaping that the Jenkotsu had never heard of. But this was the twice damned Incarna! Any and all of his abilities should be described in _some_ detail. We had been fighting him and his kind for forty thousand years. It was perfectly possible that we had no knowledge of the smaller or weaker techniques; and in the right combination they could still be very dangerous. But we were talking about a man moving through space without walking it!

Those explosions had shaken a wall that had stood for a hundred generations! How had he done that? Where had he gotten the Hassad Yavim? I have only ever seen fragments; how did he acquire an entire gladius made from it?

I forced myself to calm, taking slow and deep breaths. If I allow the Incarna to impair my judgment I would made hasty decisions; I would get people killed.

Make every move without haste or hesitation.

He had fought the Avatar.

I had been told the last, and current Avatar's were a small male Airbender who bore the tattoo's of the older generations. How could it be that it was an Airbender for two cycles? And the woman I saw had been a Firebender from the ease of which that element came to her. But Roku had been the Fire Avatar last. Fire was not supposed to be next in the cycle either. There was much I still did not understand about what was going on. But that had been the Avatar; I had felt the call. And if I was to ever meet him … or her again I would know instantly.

I pushed all of those thoughts from my head. Thinking over unanswerable questions would only cloud my mind. I needed to think clearly if I was to help lead the Resistance in the days to come. I cleared my face of the turmoil in my head as Suki was about to open the door. No need to worry her.

"Oh, Arckon! I've been looking for you," she said from the doorway. I turned around and managed a small smile at here.

"Have you?" I asked. There was something wrong with her. She still wore that disguise of the old woman and she was still hunching over slightly but her eyes behind the large glasses and shadowed with the shawl were a little red. I frowned slightly; her costume makeup had also been reapplied recently. "What happened? Does it have something to do with that man I left you with?"

"No," she said immediately. "Well, yes."

I felt my face twist a little as I took a step closer to her, examining her further for anymore damage. "What did he do?" I asked, my voice rough even to my own ears.

"Arc, he did the right thing," she said, allowing herself a small smile. "He's a very gentle person and he did it to protect me from being hurt later."

"What did he do?" I repeated, finally going right up to her and pulling up her sleeves to inspect her arms for any signs of bruising.

"Arckon he didn't hurt me!" she said forcefully, allowing me to continue to hold onto her arm. "He didn't touch me other then to comfort me and he was a perfect gentleman, just like I knew he would be."

"He hurt you." I trusted her and she was quickly becoming one of my few friends; I would not let her be hurt like I was. "I could see it on your face when you walked in here."

"I was hurt," she admitted, but cut me off before I could respond. "But! He didn't do it on purpose. He told me some things about himself, and although I may not like it I can understand what he meant."

Something was off here. I could not say exactly what, but there was something I was missing about this, something important. "He scared you?" I asked, and saw the answer before she even opened her mouth.

"Some of the things he said; yes, they did scare me a little. But I know him, and I know that I have nothing to fear from him," Suki said as I let go of her arms. "I trust him and although it hurt, I know he only did it to protect me. He's a chivalrous, thick skulled idiot at times; but his heart's in the right place."

"Alright," I conceded with a small nod. For the time being I would take her word for it, and trust this 'Sokka'.

Sokka … there was something about how he looked that bothered me now – A long pony tail running down his back. "So, what did you want to find me for?" I asked, getting her mind of the subject that was clearly bothering her. I may be trusting her on this man, but I would never let my guard down around him completely.

"Sokka asked me to meet him at the Festival this afternoon, and well," she said, fidgeting a little. "I'm alright and all, I just would rather go with _someone_. Bee and Longshot have to stay back here to do something and I was hoping you'd like to come with me. That is if you can get the time off? I was just thinking that I never see you relax at all, so I thought it would be good for you."

As she spoke, rambling on I felt the slightest smile edging its way onto my face. "I suppose I could use an afternoon off," I agreed. I didn't have too much planned this afternoon and it looked like Suki just needed some time away from all of this. I didn't see the problem with helping out a friend. But her _friend_, this Sokka, the man with a sword – obviously not a bender from the way be moved– who came into the Resistance with grandmaster Haiyahi was really bugging me. There was just something about him...

"Okay," Suki said, glowing happily. "I'll go tell someone to pass the message onto Red May and then we can go. I promised to meet Sokka there at four; he wanted to show me something."

I nodded and made to follow her out. So we were to meet her sword-wielding friend at four – a friend with a sword that would look a lot like a gladius from a bit of a distance. I stopped at the top of the stairs. From below I could still hear Suki saying something, totally unaware I was not following her anymore. It was rude to let someone continue talking when you aren't there, but I was held fast by a trickling coldness running down my spine.

The image of a man in a pony-tail, stuttering though the air, swinging a black gladius replaying over and over inside my head.

-

-Sokka-

-

I followed Piando back up the stairs and through the kitchens. The dozen or so people that had helped me into the archive just nodded respectfully before they parted company at the top of the stairs and went their own ways, their seemings back up.

Well, that has to have been the strangest conversation I had ever had. I met Vashti, and she was nice enough, but I couldn't talk to her. At first it was like I was a ghost trapped in a memory, watching her searching though the archive, looking for a suitable human host; then I managed to break though completely, but …

What the hell was that? At fist it was as like I was a cloud.

Gods, it sounds insane just thinking about it. I was a cloud? I suppose that's the best way to describe it. I felt weightless, and I could touch every wall in the archive at once. I drifted around near the ceilings until I felt like I needed to step in. I called a bolt of lightning from within me to strike the archive, and when it touched the floor, a wispy spectral version of the White Wolf came into being. Then my cloudyness cracked, and I begain to rain down. I could see like every drop of water was an eye, feel like they each were a finger, and when they had all falled, I pulled myself together and reformed.

Uh, my head hurts. I was a cloud, and then rain. Yeah, I am really just waiting to wake up in a padded room somewhere.

I kept chancing looks at Piando. What was I supposed to say now? I had just gotten back from yelling some sense into him two hundred years ago. What do you follow that with?

My thoughts must have shown on my face again as Piando-sensei spoke up. "I would like to extend my much belated thanks to you. I had much doubt in me back then, and it very well could have gotten me or many others killed."

"Yeah, no problem," I said as we pushed through the double doors, walking back into the main parlor. The now familiar clicking of tiles and glasses was almost soothing. "You helped me out when I was in the same situation."

"I believe the saying is; _thats what friends are for,_" he said smiling in that Gel-Hassad way again.

I nodded my own agreement just a we spotted the gang sitting at the table I had seen Katara and Aang at earlier, their lunch long since gone. I caught a waiter with a hand and asked him if he could bring some ginseng tea to the table.

"Hey Piando-sensei?" I asked quietly. "Do you think you could do some calculations and maybe a spell for me?"

"I shall try. I assume you have something in mind?"

"Yeah," I assented. "When I was in the Archive I noticed a little something addressed to me."

"Oh?" he asked interestedly.

"Yeah. Apparently you have an agent in the Fire-Nation that managed to get assigned to the maintenance team on one of the Airships on their way here. He knew a guy who knew one of the clan heads or something long winded and confusing, any way he had a connection in that conclave you called a little while ago, so he was told enough to know that it would be beneficial for me to know the exact whereabouts of Azula's armada."

"I see," Piando said softly in a conspiratory tone. "That _would _be beneficial."

"Indeed it would," I said sagely. "He just so happened to have managed to put that little bit of information into the Archive with an address listed right to me. So when I was fumbling around – I mean easily finding my way out I happened to stumble upon it as it was unsorted. Since the Archive was so … wild before when I did whatever it was I did to it, he could only put the information into it and hope I found it. There was no way he would be able to get a team together to file it properly."

"I assume it was important?"

"Oh yes," I said nodding. "He managed to activate a spirit beacon in the three hundred and thirteenth mark four hundred and two ion-byte frequency, with a spiral cypher on it."

"Brilliant," Piando smiled, "in that frequency all the standard scanning devices would be useless. But since that beacon is typically used as a baited trap for capturing spirits it normally would not be useful as a homing beacon unless it was calibrated to something only we have?"

"Specimen 99-543," I said as though it was nothing.

"There is no specimen 99-543," Piando said, allowing a little mirth.

"Really?" I asked in mock disappointment. "Then whatever will we do with the pulse the beacon is sending into the spirit realm on the 67-Y range in the Orhanas pattern?"

"We might be able to trace it back – if the Archive was accessible?" he asked speculatively.

"It just might be," I said offhandedly. "Someone might have just made friends with the Archive and any friend of mine would be a friend of it's." Piando nodded understandingly when I said that. I supposed being the Architect of the Archive gave him the insight he needed to see that the Archive was indeed alive.

"I will see what I can do. Do we have a time frame?"

"Later this evening," I said. "About five or so I think."

Piando gave one last nod and walked away. I could already see a thousand thoughts kicking themselves around behind his eyes and knew that I would have my window when I needed it.

Now to deal with the Jenkotsu that wanted to make me into a people-pretzel.

I began to weave my way though the parlor over to where I had seen the gang. As soon as I got close enough Toph looked up, seeming to have just noticed me and leaned over to tell my sister. I frowned when I noticed that Aang seemed to be cowering in his chair, trying his best to get away from the two women.

O-kay? What the hell was that about?

"Hey guys," I said cheerfully as I pulled a chair away from an empty table and sat down next to Toph. "How's it going?"

"I didn't tell him!" Aang cried out in a panicked voice, before diving under the table.

I lifted up the table cloth to see Aang hiding under there, seeming to be figuring his chances at a run to the door. "Is he okay – like in the head?" I asked a little worried.

"He is right now," Katara said with a little edge in her voice that brought a whimper from beneath the table. Ha, that's what I liked to hear. Well, if anyone but us tried to make Aang whimper they would be nine kinds of broken faster then Toph could level a building – which wasn't that long – but we were all acting like ourselves. Moral was high. Sadly it needed to be today more then any other.

I grinned when I noticed Toph's hand creep across the table to mine. Her soft hand threaded with mine and Katara let out a little squeal. I glanced over at my little Warrior Toph and found that same wicked smile that always promised mischief and mayhem.

"So Sokka," my sister asked, smiling so wide her face looked about to crack, "is there anything new you think I should know?"

"I don't think so," I said slowly. "Can you think of anything?"

"Nope," Toph said gleefully. I can honestly say I was a little surprised – but happily so – when she pulled me over to her by our clasped hands and kissed me again. I fell back into my chair feeling like my head was full of puffy little clouds. I could definitely get used to that. "I can't think of anything."

"Think who?" I asked dumbly, before my mind caught up with me again. Never let it be sad that Toph couldn't be forward and go for what she wanted. Sure, she had taken a round about way dropping clues for me, but she had been following Katara's advice. "Oh yeah, nothing."

Toph cackled. "I know I said it before, but we are going to have to do that much more often."

"Okay," I agreed happily.

* * *

Jade Knight - Richard Caine


	20. Poised on a Blade

Here is the first part of the update... a nice build-up chapter with some sweet stuffs and maybe a little friction. A huge battle starts next chapter... i promise. I'm still working on the wrinkles of the rest. It's pretty big... little over 20 thousand words right now (counting this part) and not done, but i need to get this right... it's a delicate scene. Anyway. I'll be as quick as i can while still staying awesome.

-jade

P.S. I stuck that smug bastard in the coffin. Leave me in the grave yard will you... I'll show him.... -suddenly notices an umbrella drink beside the computer- Oh crap.

* * *

**WHOOT! We just rolled over two hundred thousand words!**

never thought I'd get this far... couldn't have done it without Richard though. Oh, and although updates come very randomly, it will never be abandoned.

* * *

**Written and read best in 1/2 format **

* * *

**Sokka: Master of the Black Sword**

Author: The Jade Knight

Co-Author: Richard Caine

* * *

**-The Resistance Saga-**

**Chapter 20**

Poised on a Blade

* * *

-Sokka

I turned my wrists over a few times, inspecting the chains of Spells that I had put there for any mistakes. I went over the formulas one last time before I pulled my crimson wrist …. thingies on to cover up the glowing green writing. I don't want to draw too much attention at the Festival before I'm ready, and having glowing glyphs all over my forearms might do it. I checked the glyphs on my ankles, and even looked down the front of my shirt at the circles of them on my chest one last time.

One of the more limiting things about what Piando had taught me was that true Spirit Shaping spells took time to create. I'd begged off a little earlier to go prepare for this afternoon. What I was planning would take time and energy; along with writing long sequences of text in glowing green fire. That bit always seemed to put people off for some reason.

"There is nothing and never will be anything, I went there to break it off as cleanly as possible without hurting her. She will always be my friend, but nothing more."

"Alright," Toph took a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh. "I know you've just figured out I like you too, and we haven't really gone into anything. But if you're with me, you're with me; no one else. I don't want to put you off by sounding too … possessive or something, but that's how I feel."

I smiled widely as I stretched out my still back and looked around the empty room Piando had let me use for my preparations. "I was pretty sure that's how you felt, even before this. And that's how I feel about all of this too. I never could have even tried to talk to you without ending whatever was left with Suki. That's why I went and talked to her first like I did."

I bent down and touched the last chain of Glyphs I had sketched out on the floor. It glowed to readiness, curling up the wall, until the whole thing was charged. Then I raised one edge of it and connected it to my stomach, just under the dozen other lines already there. It tickled a little as it slithers all around my chest, but it was quickly affixed and ready to be activated. I dusted off my legs and made sure all my glowy bits were hidden. If what the memories Piando gave me were anything to go by, there would come a time when I would be able to create all these chains and more in only the blink of an eye. And not only that, but I could be able to call up and bind Spirits with a flick of the wrist; but until that day would come I would have to use these long Glyph chains to manage. Meh, it could be a lot worse.

I could just be stuck with the usual taunts that used to be my standard fare. Although one should never underestimate the power of the taunt...

"I'm with you and that's not going to change, but I would like you to at least try to be civil around Suki," I asked carefully.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means I would be very unhappy if she was somehow crushed in a landslide or something," I joked. "I'm not asking you to be friends with her, but play nice. Please?"

"I'm hurt," she said mockingly. "I'll have you know that my father is nobility and I was brought up to be a proper lady in all kinds of political situations."

I stood there for a few seconds, thinking about what that could mean. "That actually makes me more nervous."

She cackled mischievously, making my heart leap again. "It should. But you don't have to worry; as long as the girl keeps it strictly friendly I can deal. But I will tell you now if she starts something I will end it. I just got you to myself. I'm not going to let some girl take you away."

"Fair enough," I agreed, grinning, but the smile quickly started to slip from my face. "Uh, Toph, about all this stuff I'm preparing." I raised my wrists.

"I _was_ beginning to wonder." She smirked, rolling her hand. "You talk to Katara and Aang for maybe two minutes, and then we both lock ourselves in here and you start writing all over the walls with that hand fire of yours."

"Spirit Fire."

"Yeah, finger fire. Anyways, I was saying I was planning on making you tell me before we left in case it was another one of these stupid ideas you have. You know the ones; where you run off like a moron and I have to come and save your sorry ass."

I laughed good-heartedly. "Am I really that predictable?"

My little Warrior Toph got a very dark look on her face the second I opened my mouth to reply. "Look, I am not some little china doll you have to protect."

Oh, damn. Stupid Sokka; use that brain of yours. "I know, and I never meant anything like that."

"I know you know, but you still seem to forget. I'll agree that you're not the same guy you were a few months ago, but you're not invincible either. I'm still really mad at how far you went back in the Oasis. You could have been killed."

"But, Yasuragi was-"

"I know she was going to level us all! Don't you think I know that?" she shouted, backing me up against the wall. "I could feel how powerful she was, everything around her was trembling with power I never even knew Twinkletoes could call up, but then you went and decided that you had to do it all _alone_!"

I was starting to get a sick feeling. "I didn't-"

"Shut up and listen! We all came pretty damn close to dying there, but you could have done things a lot differently. So you're this big Incarna. Whoopty do! You can still die can't you! Can't you?"

"Yes," I said quietly.

"And you sure as hell ain't all powerful, not even Aang is, but you're supposed to be smart. And not just normal smart, you're supposed to be this Yang thing, as smart as Yasuragi is powerful, right? So where the hell was the thinking there? Where was all this 'shadow in the night' crap? Huh? All I saw was one idiot pushing himself so far he couldn't even stand after."

"What was I supposed to do? Let you all die?" I shouted back.

"Of course not! But you could have thought! You could have made a plan where we all gang up on her. Gods Snoozles, you yourself said we all had to depend on each other, and then you go and throw yourself at that psycho like some kind of crazed lunatic? Where was the thinking in that?"

"I-I- ," I stammered, all my anger deflating. She's right; I could have come up with a better plan, _any_ plan. All I did was try to hit Yasuragi harder and harder. I could never win against her like that, it was some kind of crazy fluke that I did. If Aang hadn't been trying with everything he had to lock her down inside his mind...

"I'm sorry."

"You damn well almost were!" Toph continued to glare at me in her own way until I felt about as tall as an ant.

"I wasn't thinking." I felt horrible, she was right; she was almost always right dammit. There were a hundred ways I could have handled that better. Hell, I don't think there were many ways I could have handled it worse; except for the dying thing of course. "I'm sorry; I promise I'll never do anything like that again."

"Good, now stop feeling sorry for yourself."

That was it? We're moving on? I know Toph was never one to dwell on things, but I would have expected her to yell at me for at least a little while longer. Then I looked again. I saw her shoulders sag slightly in relief; I saw her clenched fists loosen, and most importantly I saw her breath a silent sigh. There was something else going on here that I had missed.

From somewhere inside me, the wolf slapped me up the back of the head and threw a few random memories at me. I watched an amazing fire bender battle her way through ranks of enemies to rescue someone important to her; and once she got back to safe ground, she just held the brown haired girls' hand gently and wouldn't meet her eyes. I saw a man do the same, but again when he was in front of the one important to him, he didn't grab a hold of them, or shout or anything else you'd expect someone to do when they were scared.

I don't think I had ever seen Toph genuinely frightened. I had seen her under strain, or startled, but never afraid. I suddenly felt even worse. I think I understood now. My Little Warrior Toph was one of a kind, and no one would ever be able to change her.

I reach forward slowly, and gently hugged Toph to me. She didn't look at me, and she never uncrossed her arms, but I felt her relax. "I'm sorry I was so dumb."

"Better be," she mumbled, still trying to glare, but her heart wasn't in it anymore. I just stood there for a time, enjoying having Toph so close. I felt her shift slightly, and move in a little closer, even though her arms were still crossed in fading anger.

Someone opened the door and we immediately pulled apart. I quickly turned to see who it was, my hand already resting on one of the more powerful Spirit chains, but I took my finger off the metaphysical trigger when I recognized one of the Gel-Hassad who worked in the parlour. He looked at both of us and I could see the amusement in his eyes.

"Yes?" I asked pointedly.

"Master Piando would like to speak to you as soon as you are done in here. He says that the Pathway you requested is completed."

"Oh?" I said excitedly. The Pathways to the Airships, great! "Tell him we'll be there soon,"

"I shall," he said, and winked before closing the door again.

"The hell was that about?" Toph suddenly started to laugh. "What?"

"Five minutes after we talk to Katara and Aang and you tell her we are going to start seeing each other we both run off to a storage room and lock the door, what do you think she thought?"

My face started to burn. "But I told her that I was going to be throwing around a lot of Spirit Fire, and since you're the only one with uh, a natural resistance to it because of you parents, you were the only one that could be in here."

"And I agreed because I wanted to talk to you about that Suki girl, but even I knew it looked bad." She said suggestively.

"I-I- I wasn't thinking that!"

"Why not?" She asked, indignantly.

"No I didn't – not that I don't – it's not – Argh!" I growled as I watched her expression straining to stay still. "You're playing with me!"

"'Course," she replied. I wanted to say something smart, or retort in an equally devastating manner, but I couldn't think of anything and the round automatically went to her. "Boo-yah! I am awesome and don't you ever forget it."

"Yeah, yeah," I mumbled. "So what does any of this have to do with Katara?"

"I watched that messenger guy go to her first, and she sent him over here to make sure no one was being taken advantage of." The wicked grin that spread over her face told me who would have been taking advantage of whom. Suddenly I felt like a little mouse that just saw an attacking raptor.

I cleared my throat and tried not to blush too hard. "Okay, moving on."

"You were just going to tell me what you're gearing up for," Toph said, leaving no room for discussion on the subject. "I don't know much about any of this Spirit Shaper stuff, but I have to guess you're not just putting a few precautionary measures on yourself."

"No," I agreed. I gripped my wrist, the Glyphs hot beneath my fingers. "This – This is going to be one of those fights you were talking about."

"Where your first impulse is to rush off alone?" She looked about ready to deck me if I said yes. "Look, just because I can't seem to keep up with you in a fair fight_ right now_ doesn't mean I can't knock anyone on their ass. And if you even try to say I'm too weak I will walk out of this room and we'll be over before we even start."

"No," I said firmly. "It's quite the opposite actually."

I rubbed the back of my neck, trying to get my thoughts together. "I've been – well, seeing would be a pretty good word I suppose. There's – argh." I wiped my hand down my face and walked in a slow circle around the room. "You're confusing and – it's not just to me. The Incarna bits inside me are sensing things that don't add up."

"Lost me, try again."

I continued to walk in a slow lazy circle, trying to get the feelings and thoughts I had over the last day or so together. "Okay, let's try it this way. One of the things I can do is craft a prophecy."

"I thought you said you hated them?"

"I do, and I'm pretty sure I do it a different way than say, Aunt Wu does. But I have to trust them." I stopped pacing. "Alright this is going to sound really weird but I need you to try to understand it.

"I'll try," she said, dropping into one of the chairs in the corners.

"I'm just a man, and the Incana is immortal and very powerful. Once the human part of the entity dies, the immortal part passes on, with all the knowledge to the next carrier. We are two very separate yet joined individuals that come together to create the Incarna that people see. One theory says that I was born with it like Aang, another says that I pass it on, more of a hand to hand thing."

"Got that part."

"I'm just mortal, so there are things that the Wolf must interpret and translate so that I can understand them, just as there are things that are too mortal for_ it_ to understand that I must translate for him. We _together_ make a bridge connecting the spirit realm and the mortal realm, kinda like Aang but different. Prophecy is one of the things he understands, that he tells me about. But the thing is, it's_ me_ that brings the knowledge for them."

"Losing me again," she said.

I growled again at my own inability to understand. I decided to take another approach to this, and I told her the same prophecy I had told Aang.

"_Mistress of Metal_?" she asked, sounding very doubtful.

"Yeah, And from what I can gather, the reason I know all that is – um," I tailed off nervously. I looked at her closely, well, this could really change how she sees me. "Even right now I'm getting feelings. Little things really; I get the feeling to reach out, a second before a cup falls. I get the feeling to go through the left door because I know someone is about to come through the right one. It's nothing precise and it's nothing I can control, but I think the prophecies I make are like those feelings, but after the Wolf looks at them and sends them back to me clearer and defined."

Deathly silence fills the room, and I can easily hear the people in the Parlour talking and eating. Toph just sits there for a long time, just watching me in her own way.

"What are you trying to say?"

Always the easy questions. "I guess I'm trying to say that as my connection with the Wolf gets stronger these feelings will too, not very much stronger though. I would never be able to handle too much, simply because I'm mortal. But – well – I suppose the easiest way to put it would be that my subconscious is slowly beginning to spread out through time."

More silence met me. This time it was even longer and deeper, if that was possible.

"I'm still going to be me, but – I suppose coming into such close contact with something as potent and powerful as the Incarna Spirit-"

"How powerful?" she asked suddenly.

I swallowed hard. "Do you remember me talking about how the opposites of the four elements were Void, Pattern, Fate and Dream? Well, I'm starting to get the feeling that the Incarna Spirit – the Wolf is made up of a portion of those concepts. With those I can move in more directions than most people, kind of like how the Gel-Hassad can slip into another plane and access their Archive. It doesn't exist anywhere on this world, its elsewhere, and they have to go there. I think I'm kind of the same, but more. I can move backwards through time under the right circumstances, as well at stepping into the realms of the dead and the gods."

"How can you be sure you will eventually be able to move through time?" she asked curiously.

"Remember how I said I've looked at a possible future? Well, I'm starting to have daydreams or, more just memories of moving very far back. I can remember people fighting, and for some reason, one of the most vivid … daydreams of is me, meeting a man. We're somewhere very far away from here. He's sitting all alone before a fire, and he has a … companion. An animal of some sort, but it's alive, not a spirit like the Wolf. He knows he's going to die the next day, but he also knows it's for a good cause. He saves an entire race with his death. I asked the Wolf about it and I got the feeling that going back to get advice and forgotten knowledge from people long dead is not unheard of for a fully powered Incarna, it's just not used very often."

"And you think what you're seeing is ..."

"These abilities beginning to form? Yes, I do."

She went quiet again, letting it all sink in. "And the Prophecy?"

"That's the strange part," I admitted. "Okay, there's this old myth that the Incarna has a prophecy for everyone; something that everyone should heed if they are so lucky to receive one, because they always come true."

"That must be a bit of an ego boost," she said grinning again.

"A little," I admitted. "Makes me feel all important."

Toph snorted and gave me a look that said to keep my head deflated.

"Anyway," I said loudly.

"So you think this Arckon is the guy I knew and we have to fight him?" Toph asked, getting right to the point, like usual.

"Yes," I said slowly. "How'd you know?"

"Aang, he was almost too happy to spill every secret he had when Katara got her scary face going when she thought he blabbed to you."

"Ahh." I watched her carefully. "Are you going to be okay with that?"

"It'll be … difficult, but I can deal."

I was going to say more, but I didn't want to sound like I didn't think she could handle it. "Okay, so Myths say that I'm supposed to have a Prophecy for everyone, but that only half true. There will probably be quite a few times when I'll have a forewarning for someone, but it won't be about them. Like I said, my subconscious is slowly starting to spread out in time."

"You can only make prophesy's about things you'll be there for," Toph said, finally getting it.

"Yes!" I cheered. "It's because there not prophesies per se. It's more like, vague feelings and thoughts – daydreams really, that I have. At least that's my excuse for why they're so vague."

"That one didn't sound so vague to me, and what does any of this have to do with me being confusing."

I looked at her, my little Warrior Toph. Damn, how do you say something like this? Especially when you barely understand it yourself? "Well, I have a second prophecy for you."

"Lucky me?" she asked quizzically. "Well, let's hear it."

I cocked an eyebrow at her, and got an impatient foot tap in return. Alright, you asked. I closed my eyes and reached out for the wolf. At first I felt nothing but my own heartbeat, but them something reached back, and it came.

It was like a pouring rainstorm beating on a mighty mountain side. I smelled the sweet dew, and grass crushed under the feet of grazing animals. The heat from the magma buried deep in the earth formed a body in my mind's eye. It was tall and powerful, glowing a searing scarlet against my eyes. Tundra grass formed flowing locked of hair while two diamonds floated up from the molten rock and focused on me. She spoke, and my mouth passed on her words.

"_She_ _decedents down through the levels, breaking down any walls that stand before her. The demons swarm and clash against her, but she will not be stopped until she reaches the deepest pit. Two beyond the dead lays the object of her fury._"

I coughed, smoke spewing from my mouth as I fell to my knees. I gasped for air and forced it down into my lungs, even as it felt like it was freezing me. Toph was by my side by then, and she reached out to touch me; to make sure I was alright, but the heat coming off my body in waves made her pause.

"Damn," I coughed, trying to get the smoky taste out of my mouth. "Don't want to do that again."

"What the fuck was that!" Toph shouted. She grabbed me and helped me up and into a chair. I rubbed my eyes hard until I left like I could force them open, and when I did I felt like the air in the room was a hundred degrees too cold.

"Ah damn, don't ever let me piss you off," I groaned and dropped my head back into my hands.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just – ow."

"What _was_ that?"

"That," I said, finally managing to sit up straight again, "was you, very angry at someone. And if that was just a fraction of you mad, I don't ever want to be front and center."

"'How was that me?" she asked sharply. I was feeling a lot better now, what I had been hit with was just a memory of anger, so it didn't do any real damage. I reached up and took her hand in mine, giving her a reassuring squeeze.

"That's the confusing part," I admitted roughly. "I had told you that these Prophesy's came from the subconscious me, well, this one didn't. It came from you. I saw some, fury altered version of your Earth Spark tell me those words, and I just spewed them out." I twisted my neck to one side, and then the other, trying to will some new life into myself.

"How would I do that?" At least she seemed to be calming down now. I suppose I wouldn't like to see her just collapse and start spewing smoke and heat either.

"There are a few very powerful Spirit Shapings that could accomplish that. What you would have to do would be create a thought, not even really words – words wouldn't make the trip, it would have to be feelings. Then once it gets to my side, or time or whatever, the wolf reassembles it all and I get that."

"Why do I have to keep asking all these questions, can't you just explain it all?"

I grinned at her and got a playful smack for my troubles. "Okay, okay. Whatever it was you were clearly angry and trying to get to the realm of the gods. And before you ask, yes I know what that's supposed to be. Okay, the nine levels 101, picture this, under this reality is another one. Tens of thousands of years ago they called it the Twilight, or the Gloom, depending on your translations. Anyway, the Incarnai and People like them could walk in these other version of reality. The first is pretty boring and sterile, and the second has three moons for some reason, and so on."

"The seventh level is where it gets interesting. The archive was moved there a really long time ago. The seventh real is also the neutral realm, separating the realm of the dead – the eighth level – and the realm of the gods – the ninth level. It sounds strange, but once you understand that null space is spherical it-" I looked over to her and saw she wasn't clear on the little intricacies of null space.

"Forget that, but trust me. Seven is between eight and nine, okay? Now, there are two ways to get through the levels. The first is to punch through all of them with pure power. A few Incarnai have gone all the way down to the eighth that way, but no Incarna has ever had the power to reach the ninth level that way. Next is the form of mediation that the Gel-Hassad have developed. It's better in some ways because anyone, no matter their power level can reach the seventh level. So, whatever pissed you off is hiding down at the bottom of the world."

"Why do I need to know all of this anyway?"

"It all has to do the first Prophecy that Aang told you, and what I'm preparing for now. Basically, I had a talk with Arckon's Spark, and from what I gathered, I can't take him on head first; and I don't have anywhere near the control I need to take him out sneaky like. So, well I guess I'm asking you to come and save my ass when the time comes."

Toph looked at me, and I could almost feel the energies rolling over me as she watched me. "You're not going to be an idiot?"

"Nope," I quipped, and pulled her closer to me. "Toph, would you please join me for a good fight?"

"Smooth talker," she snorted, but she couldn't quiet fight down a little blush. "So do you have a plan?"

"Yeah, and uh – I'm going to have to let him take you away at first," I said carefully. I didn't want her to think that I was abandoning her, or anything else that might make her as mad as I had just felt. I never wanted to piss her off that badly. Bloody hell, if I ever found out she was getting that mad I would run screaming in the other direction like Genzou the fire-tard herself was after me.

"I know, I sort of gathered that from what Aang, but I sure as hell ain't going without a fight," she said, her voice dangerous and quiet. "So what's the plan?"

"Pretty much what it says in the Prophecy," I replied. Gods I hate prophecies. "He thinks along the lines of the Monks that trained Aang, basically that I am a horrible twisted person who needs to be stopped at all costs."

"But what about all that Yin to Yang crap, can't you just tell him that?"

"I wish I could, but he's heard it all before, only the version he heard said that I'm the necessary evil that balances the good of the Avatar. Sure there is some leeway when it comes to the Jenkotsu and that ideology. Some argue that Evil and Good are too black and white, but not too many of my predecessors lasted long enough to prove that wrong. It probably didn't help that the ones that did evade Yasuragi and her Jenkotu exterminators were evil bastards that were everything they thought and worse."

Toph leaned back against the wall ad chewed her lip, thinking. I let her go, she needed to understand the situation entirely if she was going to tap into the power she had sleeping inside her.

"What if I try to talk to him?"

"I don't think that would work either."

"Why not?"

"It's because the bastards who came before me had no feelings for anyone or anything that got in their way. There are many magics that are best lost in time because they were so terrible; ways to strip a person of their mind and soul and use their body as a puppet. Ways to force someone's will on hundreds and make them do anything he wanted. I have quite a few memories of other Incarnai fighting these Jenkotsu's, and they never believed a word anyone would say about them, fearing that they were being controlled by something like that, or worse. And sometimes they were proven right."

"So, what, there's nothing that any of us can say that will make him _not_ want to kill you?" she asked, annoyed at the whole situation.

"Maybe, but I keep getting the feeling that there's something we're supposed to help _him_ with. His Spark told me something about his lack of trust in people. He had an experience a few years ago that broke something inside of him and now he has no faith in people, or the Resistance of Ba Sing Se. Nothing. He refuses to admit it to anyone, least of all himself, but he needs to be given something to believe in. Look, this war is a hundred years old, for all of us but Aang it's the way it's always been. But for him, he's tired of fighting, tired of killing, tired of seeing people die. He just wants it all over, but his vows and sense of honour won't let him give up, and all that inner torment is tearing him apart."

"And what are we supposed to do about it?" she asked. "Don't get me wrong, if it's really Arckon, then I own him a lot. He was my only friend before you guys. But if he's as dangerous as you say, why are you putting your neck under his knife to help with a problem some spirit thing told you about. What if it's wrong? Or he kills you before he realizes whatever he needs to know?"

"That's why I got you," I said confidently. "Look, I have to do this. He's hurt, and a part of him asked me to help. I can't just turn my back on him – no this isn't some Incarna thing, this is a Me thing. I can't just ignore someone who asked for my help."

"Great, make me out to be the monster," she pouted, crossing her arms.

"I didn't mean that," I sputtered quickly, but then sighed when I noticed her lips quirk up. "Har Har."

"You're just too easy." She shrugged. "So what am I supposed to do?"

"We'll you're going to have to access all of you power."

"Thanks captain obvious." She rolled her eyes. "And how am I supposed to do that."

"With this," I said, reaching out to touch the Hassad Yavim armband that she still wore.

"I-I was just – I mean it was useful. Shut up." Toph turned away from me and blushed a bright red. I can see why she likes to tease me; it's a lot of fun.

"Okay," I said suggestively, only to see her blush deepen. She turned to me and took a swipe. I dodged away.

"Alright I give," I laughed.

"Jerk."

"A little," I admitted. "Can you do that thing where you turn it into different shapes?"

She growled at me one more time, and then with a flick of her hand, the arm band unwound and slithered down into her palm, then she crushed it between her fingers pulled apart, revealing a little face that wobbled its chin. Next there was a star, and then a key.

"Alright, hold that one." The key floated weightlessly between her hands as I watched. "Have you ever noticed that you Earthbend differently than the other benders?"

"Yeah, but that's just because I can't see anything that isn't touching the ground somehow."

"Really?" I questioned. "Every other Earthbender I have ever seen has only used the earth by manipulating kinetic energy – physical force. For instance, they stomp down and a piece of stone flies up. Then they kick it in the direction they want. You on the other hand, just gesture and stone moves. The only other benders I have ever so something even close to that were Boomie and those Earth-Kingdom guards with the weird stone hands they threw at people." I flexed my hands at her to prove my point.

"And even then they threw the rocks around. I have _never_ seen anyone able to hold a stone in midair like you can. I looked back through all the memories I have of the Incarna, and I'm not saying I have even a hundredth of them, but there is nothing like it in any of the memories I _do_ have."

"So, I can make rocks float. What's so useful about that?"

"So, that's what you have to focus on and use. You are manipulating something else, something that only a few masters have ever managed to get close to." She looked at me doubtfully. I just smiled at her, and slowly slipped my hands between hers and the floating key. "Can you still see the key?"

Her forehead creased slightly as she considered something entirely new. I watched the little flickers of realizations and curiosities cross her face, until she began to understand what I was getting at. "I can see it, and your hands."

"Exactly," I said softly. "But neither is touching the ground."

-Arckon-

All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near we must make our enemy believe we are far away; when we are far away we must make him believe we are near. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him. If he is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant.

An ancient master whose name and works had been lost to the ravages of time had once said these eternal truths, and such truths had been preserved across the great divide of time. My father had said that all of these things may seem obvious and easy for even the dullest minds to grasp; but they are not. War is an art; a black art, but still in its core, an art.

"Arc, look! It's so cute!" Suki cooed as she cuddled a little blue stuffed Bunny-Kitten in a bright pink dress.

I looked at the prize she had won at the ball toss game and managed a sincere half-smile. Most of my thoughts were on what I was to do in the event that this 'Sokka' showed up and was, in fact, the Incarna. I had only accompanied Suki to get a closer look at this man. I was honestly surprised that I was having a nice time. Suki was such a bright person when away from all of the stresses of the Resistance it was hard not to.

"Are you going to name it?"

"Why do you say that? It's usually just children that name their stuffed animals."

"I see," I said.

"And her name is Sasku," Suki said with a sly little grin. I chuckled quietly as I followed after her. We had about an hour before she was meant to meet up with this 'Sokka' person, and I had managed to subtly nudge her around the entire rim of the parade grounds and I think I had a pretty good idea of the terrain and civilian population. There were a lot of people around here, but there was more than enough strong stone beneath us to take care of that. Hell, there was even enough for me to pull out my ace if things got tight.

Not too long now.

Suki took my arm in hers and lead me off to another game. I got a few stares and I noticed more than a few people staring with their mouths open like morons at my scars and the pretty girl leading me around. Those kinds of people always aggravated me. Yes I look like something the Spirits spit back out, but show a little respect. I'm not here for your entertainment.

Suki stopped at another game; something involving ballons and a small bow and arrow set. I was just watching her win herself another cute stuffed thing when I noticed a little boy, no older than four watching me. He noticed I saw him, and looked up at his mother quickly – she was talking to someone else and didn't notice – before he turned his interest back to me. Yes, it could be said he was starting at me just like the idiot behind me at the water balloon game, but the little guy wasn't doing it like that inconsiderate man – not caring about how the subject of his interest might feel about being stared at. He was a little boy who was still discovering the world, and I was something new and strange.

I painfully remembered a few little cousins that were the same way.

I smiled gently at him and he smiled back, waving with his little hand.

"Making a friend?" Suki asked from beside me.

"Somewhat," I replied, noticing the addition to her little collection, which I was also asked to carry. Whatever she said next slipped by me as something just on the outside of my awareness caught my attention.

Four people were closing in on our position fast, and one of them just scanned me in a very familiar way.

-Sokka-

We had been wandering around the parade grounds for almost an hour now, checking out escape plans and how many people were here and such. We had chosen a good spot in the middle of the grounds for the confrontation and were just making our way over there. There were still a lot of people around, and that might hold off a big surprise attack.

"Whoa," Toph gasped.

"What is it?" I asked quietly, not breaking my stride.

"We just got looked at," she mumbled. We all stopped, letting the crowd break around us like a river.

"What's that mean?" asked Aang, looking around nervously.

"It means he finally understood what I was talking about. It means that all those hours of training together weren't a waste. And it also means that this Arckon is the same one I knew. He is pretty much the only person in the world aside from Aang that knows how I 'see', and he was trying to learn it two years ago."

* * *

**Let's not forget about the "Master of the Black Sword" forum**. With such great topics as "Random Questions", "The Tokka-ness", "Plot Theories" and "The Mai Chapters" Check it out today! **Only three payments of 19.95**!


	21. Crouching Dragon

The knight is standing on the tippy-top of the highest tower in his newly rebuild fortress, as Richard makes hi way up the winding staircase. He turns just as the door opens and greets Richard with a nod.

"It all looks good to me," he says handing over a small stack of papers. "How are they fairing down there?"

"They were actually starting to worry me a little," the knight replies, flipping through the top few pages. Below them scurrying little people are chopping down trees to make siege weapons.

"They're really not wasting any time this update huh?"

"No," the knight muses darkly. "They're hatching Alien eggs over to the east and I'm pretty sure one of them is trying to raise a Basilisk."

Richard laughs. "Well that's what you get for being a year late on updates."

"Stuff came up," the knight tried to explain.

"Twice."

"I hate you."

"I'm here correcting your writing, you're not supposed to like me."

Any reply that the Knight might have had was cut off when a high buzzing filled the air. "What's that?"

"Back-up," Richard said, taking sip from his umbrella drink.

"What's that supposed to ... oh my god." Without another word or warning the Knight dived to the ground just as an impossible disc shaped craft flew over head. The sound of laughter filled the air along with the whirring of strange hidden weapons. Red bolts rain down all around a cowering knight and Richard learns for the first time that an empty suit of armour can in fact call for it's mommy.

"I didn't need to know that."

And I don't care, now shut up before I write you into a pink dress.

Richard cocks and eyebrow and suddenly a cry can be heard from far above. It is garbled and hard to understand, but it seems to be something about Croatoan.

"Ow ow ow ow ow!" the Knight shouts as he runs past, covered in what looks like hundreds of red pens. "What the hell!"

"I though we could use a new beta."

"Well she didn't have to shoot me with pens!"

Richard shrugs. "It seems to have gotten your lazy butt in gear."

"Ahhh! She's coming around for another pass!"

"**I AM THE TALLEST! ALL MUST BOW TO ME! MUHAHAHAHA!**"

"Couldn't you find a normal one?" the Knight shouts over the amplified voice, as he hides behind Richard. The red pen gun seemed to not be able to lock in on him.

"Probably, but with both of us how long do you expect them to last?"

"**ALL BAD SPELLING AND SHORTNESS WILL BE PUNISHED!**"

* * *

**Knights Authors Note**: Well that was interesting... yeah. Anyway here is the update like i promised. Its a triple update... yes a little under twenty thousand words – the longest chapter yet. Whoot! I'm uploading it all at once as a peace offering. The next part of the story is going to have to be handled delicately so it might not be up for a little while.

**Beta Note**: "Hey, this is Maran, the new beta reader. If  
you're angry about the delayed update, point your torches and pitchforks at  
me, because it took me a few days to search for all the typos. If you find any  
errors I missed, let one of us know in a review or pm."

* * *

**Written and read best in 1/2 format **

* * *

**Sokka: Master of the Black Sword**

Author: The Jade Knight

Co-Author: Richard Caine

Beta: Maran Zelde

* * *

**-The Resistance Saga-**

**Chapter 21**

Crouching Dragons

* * *

– Suki –

Suki was having a great time at the festival. Sure they were all Firebenders, but most of these people had never even seen battle. They were almost entirely all settlers here to help occupy the city. They lived and laughed and loved just like anyone else, and Suki couldn't help but join in, if only for a few hours.

"Stay close to me and do not look him in the eye," Arc said suddenly, glaring into the shifting crowd. Suki, still holding her newest fluffy prize looked up at him in confusion, until she saw them.

She noticed Sokka and Katara first, their faces sticking out almost painfully against the fairer skinned Fire-Nation people. Next came a small boy with long black hair that she knew on sight. His unique gray eyes swept the moving masses until they stopped on her and Arckon. He had survived! Sokka had told her, but she couldn't dare hope. With him as a rally point, they might be able to break this lethargic depression that most of the people seemed to be falling into!

Her thoughts were suddenly broken when she noticed a fourth person in their group. She was a small girl was walked with a distinctly masculine gait. She had long black hair tied up high, but she let her bangs fall down across her face, making seeing her face difficult. Suki watched her come closer with something between curiosity and morbid fascination. Was this the _other_ girl? The one who could live with him fighting a never ending war?

Suki hated to agree, but if what Sokka had said was true – that he would have to fight for the rest of his life, she could never find peace. She hadn't relaxed at all since she had gotten involved with this war; she couldn't imagine living with it all the time.

But what about this other woman? Suki had learned a long time ago never to underestimate anyone, but this new girl – at first look – seemed weak and tiny; at least until she got closer. She maybe short, but she looked like she was build fairly tough. And … she was _blind_?

No, she couldn't be. But her eyes were so pale, and they didn't seem to react to anything. She moved around people without looking up. And while everyone else around her squinted into the sun or wore hats to get some shade while going from stall to stall, she never blinked, even when facing the sun directly.

What was going on here?

"Hello!" Sokka called cheerfully, but she detected a ring of something else in his voice. He seemed tense, almost as if he were dreading something. Actually all of them were looking like they were expecting something bad to happen; except for the little blind girl, she looked … well the only word that came to Suki was rock steady.

"Hi," Suki said, shaking the strange feelings off. "It's good to see all of you here."

"Yeah, it was a nice day, so we decided to go for a walk." Suki noticed that Katara and Aang were unusually quiet and morose, and if she wasn't greatly mistaken, they were both looking at Arc like he was about to leap at them and tear out their throats.

-Sokka-

I stood stock still, just letting the wind blow through my hair. The Spell Chains all over my body throbbed with barely contained power, and my sword felt heavy on my back. What was going to happen now? I knew the gist of what was supposed to happen, but I couldn't shake the feeling that something I didn't know could easily jump up and bite me in the ass.

The gang stood beside me and we all just watched and waited as 'Arc' took measure of us. I stared into his single blue eye, and traced the scars the surrounded his face, seeing a pattern in them.

"I'm Suki," she said to Toph, bowing slightly in greeting. I could see that it cost her something to open up to Toph – I think she knew. But all I could do was let them talk and get in between if they tried to kill each other.

"Toph Bei Fong." She accepted Suki's bow and returning with one of her own. Their postures were tense and I could see something fighting back and forth between them. I can rightly say that I had no idea what went on between the two of them in the next few seconds, but when they straightened up, Suki smiled and started talking about the Festival and Toph was listening and nodding.

Al–right? Well, at least they're not killing each other. I slowly blinked my eyes, opening my Spirit sight to gaze upon the man who was going to try to kill me.

The sunlight that was so bright began to fade as a cloud drifted across the sun, and like he was hiding there, a wraith appeared in the newly created shade. Time seemed to slow as Arckon's Spark met my eyes.

He was a metal dragon, eyes the color of heated forge coals. Cruel articulated plates glittered in the passing bands of sunlight, as the beast exhaled a cloud of steamy vapors. Iron claws flexed, ephemeral blades digging into the pavement to either side of the warrior. Coils tightened as the great beast opened its maw, dagger teeth spreading taller than the man who stood in front of them.

Arc quickly reached inside his shirt and pulled out something quicker then any of us could see. The beast's soundless roar and its killing fury pounded down on my enhanced perception like an arctic wave. Arc whipped a small green ball at me. I caught it without too much difficulty, and screamed.

The Spirit bound to the ball gripped my hand with tendrils that burned like hot coals. I jerked backwards and fell to my knees as an alien presence invaded my mind. I was dimly aware that I was probably screaming, not that I could hear it. I felt my voice crack and I tasted coppery blood. I began to panic when some part of me recognized what I was holding, but then the pain intensified and I could focus on nothing else.

The Spirit wrapped itself completely around my mind, and squeezed. I clutched my head as the pressure became to much to bear. I couldn't think. I couldn't move. Some part of me was yelling a spell at me; something to shield myself with, but it was already to late. I felt my mind give, and crumple beneath the iron grip of the Spirit. I fell forward, blood dripping from my mouth, but I never felt the impact with the ground.

Silence.

I was drifting somewhere, slowly and gently. Behind me a wolf howled and I felt a connection between us tighten, but hold.

Sweet colours flitted playfully around me as I fluttered down through the layers of reality like a cherry blossom in the wind. I tried to reach for one of them, but I had no hands. The light seemed to laugh merrily and continued on its way. The concept of a vast gate rose up before me. It felt like iron bars wet from the rain, and hummed with immeasurable power. It was one of the Other Places of the world, and although normally this gate resisted any who approached it, it opened for me.

I didn't feel the weight of my arms, or any pain. I was free. Free of torment, free of hate, and free of that damned war. I was at a place of rest, and I didn't have to fight anymore.

Before me a form rose out of the endless mists. She swirled around, and came to me. She was sad, and her presence brushed mine gently, and I knew it. I hadn't seen her in years, and the memories I did have were old and faded like stories, but it was definitely her. I sank into her presence and felt like I was going to cry. I felt the last great pain lift as she held me.

"Mother."

'_Not yet, boy.'_

I turned, and there was something behind me. The force of the It slammed into me and broke my connection to the peace I felt. Suddenly the light wasn't so inviting, and the air began to feel abrasive. It was huge and powerful. It didn't have a physical body, nothing could have a physical body in the realm of the dead; It was more feelings and concepts then anything. And I felt fear.

It reached for me with a hand that could stretch the entire length of all the worlds, and gripped me with fingers that none could hide from. I cried out as It ripped me from my mother, but she brushed my mind once more and I felt calmness fill me. It wasn't time yet.

I still had things to do.

Its hands were as cold as an undertaker's, and he kicked open the gates of the dead with such power that I felt the world quake and pull away from him. I was thrown across the back of a huge black steed, and It leaped into the saddle behind me. It shrieked with a voice like a tortured beast. My fear of this demon was far more rational than my usual fears, and it was nothing to be ashamed of.

Every living thing feared Death.

We thundered across the world, following the long line that connected me to the Wolf. I couldn't die yet, at least not this way. I was certain for reasons that I could not explain that I was just... too much to be killed by a some green glowing ball of... whatever the hell that was.

Death reared Its implacable steed to a halt on the edge of the eternity, and cantered around a silver tower that rose up and disappeared into the pink sky. Moons and planets revolved around the tower, and it went on forever. Past the center of this world – this level of reality, and out the other side.

'_Remember Incarna, you promised to fight me every lifetime – a fight like no other. I intend to collect._'

I nodded hesitantly to Death, unsure of how to answer as the tinkle of bells sounded with every step the horse took. Apparently satisfied, It threw me head first into the silver tower before I could ask anything further. I thumped through another worldly divide, and came flying out of the Archive, and slammed back into the world with all the force of a falling moon. I groaned and picked myself up off the ground and looked around. There was no one here … except for the ghostly apparition of a Wolf.

_Don't do that again. _

It wasn't words that it spoke, but more of an idea. I nodded dumbly again, and the feeling of my own body tickled my fingertips. I reach out for it and pulled myself back to it. Damn wolf, always there when something freaky is happening.

"Sokka!"

My eyes snapped open, and I looked up into the worried face of my sister and Aang. Behind them Toph was crouched dangerously and growling like a bear. Bloody hell this went to crap fast.

"I'm good," I said groggily, getting sounds of relief from everyone except Arc, who looked amazed that I was still breathing. The Archive kicked a little information into my mind and I looked over a schematic and past remembrances of what exactly I still clutched in my hand. They called it a Mind Flayer- technology of the Elder Things designed as a quiet assassination tool. It sucked you into the Dream World, wove illusions around you, and digested your mind like I digested barbeque.

I felt cold fury flowing through my limbs as ice crystals began to form at my fingertips. I was no man's barbeque.

I let Katara and Aang help me to my feet, one under each arm. Let one of the Jenkotsu of the Earth think I was weaker then I was. I idly wondered just where the _hell _he'd discovered a stash of forbidden weapons from a long past Age. Maybe once we beat the tar out of him, he'd feel a little more obliging. I just hoped he didn't have another one of those things, they really pack a punch.

He _probably_ wouldn't have two, the Spirits inside them react very badly to others of their kind and would possibly self-detonate if close to another for too long. Of course, that was assuming he had their technical specifications in his head. Since he had no way of making something like that himself I highly doubted he knew that they could make him a walking time bomb of non elemental energies. A not too small part of me hoped that he spontaneously combusted.

"Sokka, Are you – Arc? What's wrong?" Suki seemed to be trying to come over to me; to see if I was okay I suppose, but then the Jenkotsu got a hold on her arm and pulled her behind him, as if he was protecting her. Cute.

"He's dangerous."

"In case you forgot, you were the first one to attack," I mentioned. I spat some blood on the dusty stones at my feet. I feel it made the point slightly more eloquently than words. I gently shook off Katara and Aang and moved up beside Toph. She still looked like she was bout to kill someone. Then Prince Charming decided to quote something that sounded like a dry version of a memorized tactical manual.

"Always be on your guard, because when the Incarna comes for your life, you will only know it a moment before he strikes. He will use weapons and tactics to attack from afar whenever he can. But if he ever attacks you from the front, in plain view, prepare for anything, because he will already have a weapon pointed at your back ready to kill you in an instant."

Okay; dry tactical manual, check. _Smart and accurate_ _author_ who probably kicked my butt in another life? Also check. Not quite to the literary level of my haiku- but quite creepy and to the point nonetheless.

"Arc, what are you talking about?" Suki asked, looking confused.

I straightened up slowly, making sure both of my hands were in plain view, and held up the Mind Flayer on the flat palm of my hand. I had a few moments of peace, at least with what Arckon's body language was telling me about how he fought. Muscles still tensed, keeping him from moving too quickly, focus narrowed. When he is faced with an enemy, he will hit it with a precise and deadly first strike. He will not hesitate for an instant. But if that enemy somehow survives, he treads carefully, testing it and keeping an eye out for a trap. Once he is sure the enemy is not trying to lead him into anything, he'll hit with everything again.

Like an avalanche. One that waits and listens.

Bastard already killed me once, I think. I was just lucky he went for my mind; I wasn't going to get another chance. So I decided to talk to him through Suki.

I'm a jerk like that.

"He's hurting, Suki. He has been betrayed so many times by those he trusted that he's closing himself off. But the thing is, he was betrayed again by the leader of his family and he doesn't even know it."

"I know about your mind games," he said, watching me carefully. Poor Suki looked like her whole world was upside down. To be fair she had no clue what we were talking about. So instead of explaining, I went for more mind games.

"Don't worry Suki, I'm here to help him … and make sure he doesn't kill me."

"What?" she asked.

"Enough," Arc said sharply, getting a few strange looked from people around us. "How did you survive that orb?"

"This?" I asked with a grin, holding up the little Mind Flayer. It tried to nibble on my fingers, the little bastard, but I had it in standby mode, so it was safe. You know, as safe as a mind devouring ball of jade constructed by a madman could get. While Arckon looked on I tossed it up into the air with a casual flick of the wrist, but when it reached the top of its arc, it folded in on itself and vanished.

I was beginning to love that trick.

"What was that?" Toph asked, finally speaking up. She had been all poised for a fight when I hit the ground, and I guess she was only now risking a question.

"It's called a Mind Flayer; a very nasty little piece of work that hadn't been used in, oh hell, a good few centuries at least as far as I know. I didn't even know there were any of those things still floating around. It's activated and then thrown at an enemy, and when it latches on, it wraps itself around the mind and spirit of the target and digests it. Sort of like what Aang does to tofu actually... hm, anyway. Without a mind to control the heart and lungs, the target usually dies almost immediately. Say, Arc, where did you get one? I know you couldn't have made it yourself."

"You'd be surprised what weapons my Family possesses."

Suki seemed to be just coming to the realization that Arc had just tried to kill me. "He's not a bad person," I said kindly to her. "He is just operating under a misconception."

"Pretty Boy, you stupid ass, what are you trying to do?" Toph shouted.

"I am trying to stop a murderer, as you well know," he spat at me.

"You're not going to get through to him Toph, he thinks that I did one of those control things on you. Notice how he only responds to me or Suki? He thinks that I have total control over all of you. And if he thinks I have control over Aang back there, he doesn't plan on letting me live."

"So, do you have a weapon pointed at my back?"

"More like your front," I said casually from my spot next to Toph. "But yes, I do have a secret weapon."

Arc smirked. "And what would that be?"

"That would be telling, and where is the fun in that?"

"What's going on?" Suki asked sounding a little angry. She was moving from confused and scared to angry. Good- anger I could use.

"Do you remember what I said before?" I never took my eyes off Arc, he was tensing. I didn't have much time left. "How I said that I was something different? Well I am different, and Arc here has been taught since he was a child that I am a monster; that people like me live only to destroy and kill. On top of that, he thinks I have broken and enslaved the mind of Katara, Toph, and most importantly Aang. I did not do any of those things, but I'm not going to be able to convince him."

"So you're going to kill each other?" she said shrilly. Oh boy... pissed was out the window. She was getting _really_ angry now.

"No," I said, as if I were going for a walkabout on the ice. I didn't feel that calm; but at least my voice didn't break. That would have definitely killed the mood. I have to admit, I was beginning to think that I may be getting that whole 'acting' thing down. There was only one person there who knew that I still had my doubts about how this was going to shake down. And she wasn't going to be telling a soul. "I'm going to survive, and then show him something that will prove him wrong."

"But you just said you can't convince him." Suki was really starting to turn amazing colours. I'd never seen someone's cheeks flare into incandescent rage before. I always thought it was a figure of speech. It took her a few moments, but she was starting to realize how dangerous this situation really is. And it was deeply irritating her.

"Stop deflecting and answer the question. How did you survive!" Arc shouted. Judging from the look Suki gave him, he wasn't a very emotional person; I was getting to him.

"When was the last time an Earth Jenkotsu crossed paths with an Incarna? Almost seven hundred years ago? And even then, I have been told I'm getting stronger at a rate none of them could even touch. So yes, your little fun ball of agonizing death was a good idea. So good in fact, that I'll give you a freebie Beautiful. It would have worked if in fact my mind was still small enough for it to consume."

I got a quick sideways glance from Katara with that one.

"There is a lot about this Incarna stuff I'm still learning, but here's what I got so far." I cleared my throat and got into teacher mode. "How good is the memory of the average person? You for example. You remember today almost entirely, and the day before is pretty clear too. Then you have pretty good recollection for the last few days, maybe a week. After that it get's fuzzy, what do you remember over the last month? A few things here and there. It was rainy this week, or you saw this guy you thought you knew two weeks ago. Even going back a month, I'd be surprise if you can recall ten to fifteen percent of everything you did."

"Now go back six months, a year, two years, five years. What do you remember from when you were ten? Maybe a handful of incidents. How about when you were five? One, maybe two images or memories? What about younger?" I watched his face clearly, as he played with everything he had ever learned about the Incarna.

"Now imagine being able to remember everything – every second of every day. Being able to look back years and remember events like you were there just there minutes ago. How much of that kind of information storage can the mind … the brain of one person hold? One year? Five? Ten? And that's only the life of one person. Remember Arckon, the strength of the Incarna is information, like raw, stupendous, apocalyptic power is the strength of the Avatar. I have sporadic memories going back hundreds, even thousands of years; do think I could fit them all inside my head?"

I laughed mockingly. It wasn't quite up to Admiral Zhou levels; but it was getting there. I smiled at him again. "The strength of the Incarna is Knowledge, and I know many things_"_

I wasn't going to tell him that I had no freaking clue how my mind was connected to the Archive, but it seemed to make sense. I _was_ able to access the archive directly while I was in the Incarna state, a feat that was thought to be only possible while standing before the Archive itself.

Okay, time to knock his foot out from under him.

"I know a lot," I said smirking in what I hoped was a roguish manner. "For instance, I know how you lost your arm and got your scars."

Arckon, who had been glaring at me with what could only be called righteous hate, suddenly paled.

"Yes, I know," I said softly. "I know that a long time ago the Water Jenkotsu developed a terrible fighting style that was to only be used against the vilest of enemies, but like any weapon, it had an imperfection in it that could cause it to wreak terrible havoc on innocents, or the undeserving. All weapons have this defect, even the Spirit of the Incarna."

"Shut up."

"It's user, the one to loose the bowstring."

"I am warning you," he spat through gritted teeth.

"A past Incarna fell to that glorified trick, and others have studied it carefully, hoping to avoid the same fate. I can tell a lot about the day you got those wounds. For instance I can tell, from the pattern of scarring on your neck, that your arm was taken one piece at a time, and you were restrained for it. I can also tell that the hand that took your face was feminine in nature." His face contorted in anger when I said that. "And judging from that look I just got it was indeed a female hand, not just a feminine one."

I watched him carefully, as I felt little tremors in the ground beneath my feet. Beside me Toph gritted her teeth and squared off into a firm stance. Not long now.

"I remember being hit with that power once, and it was agony. The human body is almost seventy percent water, and to have someone manipulate that water could be devastating. She probably took you one finger at a time, boiling the water in it until they exploded."

"Mizuni?" Toph whispered from beside me. Of course she must have met the traitorous Water Jenkotsu if she knew Arckon as well as she claimed.

"When did she take your face?" I asked, watching him carefully. His eyes for the first time looked away from me, in something like shame, before darting back to me. The shame was long gone, now he looked angry – terribly pissed off I would say.

Great, now I had one of the most powerful people in the city pissed off at me, and lets not forget that he thinks that I want to burn everything. Oh yeah, this was a great idea. I tried to smile reassuringly at him, but his body language told me everything I needed to know. Hm. Attempted Homicide by Rock was impending. Idly I wondered if there was a law in Ba Sing Se specifically for someone trying to murder another person with Earth Bending.

"Uh, Toph?"

"Yeah."

"Here it comes," I answered, watching the ground around our happy host beginning to tremble and shake, like last time, only this time it didn't stop. "Three minutes, tops."

"I thought I had more time than that," she shouted back.

"Well..." I drawled a little, tension in my voice that I didn't bother to try to hide."So did I, but that was before I pissed him off, but at least now I know he's on our side. I think."

Toph shot him an incredulous expression. "That makes me feel so much better."

An arm of stone and earth punched its way up from the ground between my feet. I took a step back and tried to still my racing heart when another arm shot from the ground, and began to pull up a head, and then a torso. All around us the bobbing and laughing people were starting to realize that there were stone men crawling their way up from beneath the earth. A few started to panic, but when the stone men started to gently herd them away they went with little resistance.

The Firebenders looked a little panicked when they noticed the Golems, but the people who still wore green and brown proudly seemed to gain strength from them. Piadno-sensei had told me about the Iron Titan and some of his techniques, and I guess they were fairly common knowledge.

One of the stone men picked up Suki and carried her away. I didn't worry too much, Arckon seemed to value her, maybe even call her a friend and he wouldn't hurt her. Though, when four of them closed in on Katara and made to restrain her, it took a lot out of me not to go and rip their heads off. I had to remember that this was going to happen, it was in that damned Prophecy I had made.

'_The allies of the Gray Ghost are being held for protection they don't need … '_

I stood stiffly, staring at Arckon as he ushered the last of the civilians away from us. He wasn't going to hurt them; he just believed that I was controlling them and wanted to get them out of the way until he can figure out a way of breaking my control … even if that meant killing me.

Katara only had her two water skins to fight with, but even then she was slicing and dicing the stone men quicker than they could reassemble themselves. Well I suppose it was Arckon reassembling them, but that's not the point. He wasn't moving a muscle and it was really starting to freak me out. If he could control nearly … about fifty of these things, with no moments; just thoughts and will?

Well, that couldn't be good for me. Not even the Archive had given me a precise sense of what a true Earthbending master could do. I mean, Bumi and Toph had their own unique skills, why should I be surprised that this guy could _bend rocks with his mind__. __(oh I like this... should have thought of it myself)_

Katara cursed using words that made my eyebrows go up when two stone men finally got their arms around her, clamping them to her sides with bands of earth. She kicked them as they carried her away to 'protect' her. Aang went down next, under a full thirty of the things, after blasting and crushing them for as long as he could. He was just being bound and carried away while I watched Toph still fighting and cursing worse than a pirate.

Arckon had sealed off the entrances to the parade grounds with walls of earth, with a flick of the wrist this time – was there a limit to how much he could bend without movements? Or was it a ruse to pull me in?

Now Toph had all the Men on her, but she was still holding her own. She'd crush one under a slab of stone, grab another and throw him through two of his brothers before blowing a couple more apart with a violent punch or – even once – a headbutt. But like the others, she was overwhelmed. She was charged by two stone men with a table cloth held between them as the others kept her attention. They scooped her up, and because she could no longer touch the ground, she was taken away too.

Now it was just me and tall, scarred and stony in the middle of an abandoned festival. The sounds of sizzling as something left on a grill mixed with the grinding of stone as the Men took up formation around both of us. A few steamers and balloons had fallen to the ground in the mad panic to flee, and now they flew around lazily. Way off across the grounds I could see where Suki had climbed up on top of a building, no doubt to try to get back here and talk some sense into us before we killed each other. She froze when she saw what was boiling up from the earth around Arckon

Liquid metal, that looked almost like mercury bubbled up and began to coat his shoes. I had no doubt that he could have summoned this metal up in an instant, but he wanted the psychological advantage. Good thing it wasn't working. I watched the metal crawl up his body, until it oozed over his face, forming to everything, yet leaving no real features. The mask had no mouth, or eyes – nope, it wasn't intimidating me at all.

Okay; maybe a little.

I tried to be cold and cool. I really did, but when the silver armour reached his right shoulder, and continued down, forming a shoulder, and then an elbow, I think I might have whimpered. When he created his fingers, and clenched then into a tight fist I felt sick. Three minutes? I'd be lucky to live one. To be able to manipulate metal to such a degree as to create working fingers was terrifying.

Okay Sokka, stop crying and get down to it, you have to hold out for three minutes. Get to it.

"Alright demon," said the silver Arckon in front of me. "Let's see this great fighter that you're supposed to be."

He didn't sound very intimidated.

I let my mouth form a tight little smirk. Nothing for it now. Alright, you want a fight, lets get to it.

I reached inside of myself, and felt the cold spark of the Void sleeping. I grabbed it, and pulled it to myself. The cups on the tables around me shattered as the liquids in them were flash frozen. Mist poured from my nostrils as my breath froze the air around me. I gripped my sword and pulled it from it's sheath

Green glyphs of the First Tongue flowed by the corners of my vision. Five percent maximum capacity; initial system overrides engaged – stabilizing – stable. All subsystems functioning within acceptable parameters. Up-link with Archive switching to primary channel – connection complete.

The numbers came, and I found a strange peace in them. They were firm and comforting. Cold calculations caused my fears to ebb away. Calculation knew no fear; only equations. Alright, lets get this show kicking.

- Suki -

Arckon was the Iron Titan? She knew he was a powerful Earth bender, but she had always assumed that he was more of a tactician. Suki looked around, trying to figure out a way of dropping down to the ground without hurting herself. The stone man had let her go as soon as the walls had come up around the parade ground, and already people were trying to get in. But none of the Earthbenders could take the walls down, nor could any of the Firebenders.

Suki grumbled as she walked along the high ledge, damn boys, always trying to act all macho. What the hell were those two doing? She understood what Sokka had said; Arc did seem like he was hurting, but what did fighting have to do with anything? And they both had the nerve to warn her about the other. What did they think she was, some pampered princess?

She'd show … what the hell was_ that_?

Sokka was ... smoking? No, it seemed to be a mist. Was he a Waterbender? He wasn't when she had met him last, but things change. She was pretty far away, but she sure noticed when his eyes went completely black, and frost started forming on the tables and chairs around him. Glasses exploded on tables and the vibrant cloth streamers broke like glass as they froze in the hot morning air.

What was going on?

Arc suddenly exploded into action, almost like he was dancing, and began tearing up and throwing what looked like javelins of stone at Sokka. She was scared for a second, but it was needless, as Sokka just slipped around them, ducking and weaving backwards, putting a little distance between them. Arc seemed to be testing him, not really aiming at anything vital, but then Suki gasped when he threw a wicked looking metal spear right at Sokka's chest.

Sokka just smiled, and slashed the flat side of his sword across his body. The silver spear struck the black sword, and instead of anything violent or bloody, it vanished into the blackness with only a small ripple to show for it.

Arc seemed completely unfazed by this and just continued on attacking, getting faster and faster as each second ticked by, until he was a silver blur, and the air was filled with various lethal objects and the ground was churning with energy trying to grab the squirming and still smiling Sokka.

Finally Arc seemed to have enough, and backed up, weaving his arms in an intricate pattern. All the stone men who had been just observers until that point, charged. Suki dropped down, and gritted her teeth in pain as she hit the ground. She had to stop this before Sokka was killed.

But her worries were again unfounded. Sokka easily dances in between the stone golems, striking down one after another after another. He dropped under a fist that could fell an elephant-whale, and cut the legs out from under his attacker. Rolling back, he dodged another hit and popped back up, knocking two of them together and decapitating both of them with a single swipe of his sword.

He was doing well, but was still being overwhelmed. Just when he seemed to be in trouble, and Suki was scrambling to her feet. He vanished from beneath a skull crushing blow. Suki watched a moment longer, thinking that it was just a trick of the light, but when the stone men parted, and there was no sight of Sokka she started to get worried. Even Arc was looking around, trying to figure out how someone had vanished firm beneath his 'eyes'. It should be impossible, if they were touching the ground, he saw them. Where the hell could he have gone?

"Si'vna ghelen ne'ev, divas nim kehelen."

Suki looked up and behind her to see where the strange chorus of whispers had come from, and her mouth dropped open in surprise when she saw Sokka standing on the face of the building looking down on her, like it was perfectly normal for someone to be defying gravity. He motioned for her to back up and she had a pretty good idea of what he said, but why didn't he just speak normaly? _And why was he stuck on the side of a building_?

"How did you get over there?" boomed Arc's voice.

Suki looked back and forth between Sokka and Arc, as Sokka began to walk down the face of the building, holstering his blade with a loose and unconcerned motion. The chorus of a thousand whispers followed in the wake of his single spoken word. "Ne'vehnem."

"Magic? That's your explanation? Don't look at me like that. Of course we learned your language – can't have the Incarna plotting right under our noses, although I will admit I cannot speak it myself. The human throat cannot easily form many of the sounds necessary, so you can imagine how surprised I am to hear it coming from you."

"Mehelem na le'chenem."

"Indeed, now shall we continue?"

Suki watched as Sokka bolted down the wall, trails of searingly bright green fire unravelling from his wrists. Impossible, she thought, but there it was. He hit the ground hard, and jogged casually back to the fight. He stopped, and the green fire trailing from his wrists began to slither across the ground, and upwards, forming some kind of window.

Suki was pretty sure she was the only one who noticed that when he hit the ground, after running down the face of the building, some of that green fire had come off his ankle and laid coiled on the ground, glowing dully.

The window that Sokka had created with the green fire was finished, and somehow the middle of it was darkening. Sokka was chanting in that same strange language that he had spoken before, while writing more complicated symbols in midair. With one final symbol and a final line of what had to be a spell, the ten foot high vortex of brilliant green and golden light seemed to punch through the world, connection to some other space far away.

At first Suki couldn't see anything inside the darkness, but then something started to move within. The loud banging of massive metal plates being withdrawn echoed into the parade ground. Light filled the space within the window, one hanging row at a time. Suki had never seen anything like it, they weren't oil lamps or even the more complicated city technology. It was something different.

Sokka didn't stop when the window opened, he continued to create a ball of that same green fire that just seemed to come into being on his fingertips. He connected a few chains that he pulled from around his forearms, leaving them bare. Once he was done, he touched it gently, and it unfolded like a paper crane and just hovered there in midair. Very quickly, small orbs of what could only be called white glowing energy began to appear and hover around the device like moths to a flame.

Suki was just beginning to question just how hard she had hit the ground when she saw a sight that would stay in her dreams for the rest of her life.

Inside the window that Sokka had built, ranks upon ranks of black metal … somethings crouched on the dusty floor. Suki had never seen a place like that before, but it looked very old, and she doubted that anyone had been there in a very long time. Sokka waved his hand in a general 'shoo' motion, and the glowing moths fluttered between the metal, before sinking into them.

As one, they all shuddered, and stood on spindly legs. They were built almost like men, but their bodies were made of delicately formed black steel and white ivory. Tubes and whirring pieces came to life as the mechanical beings shook the dust from their shoulders, and opened their yellow eyes. They had no mouths, and in each of their chests, just visible beneath heavy black metal armor was a pulsing green glow like thrum of a hidden metal heart. They quickly formed up like a precise military unit, and marched out of the gateway. Elegant weapons unfolded from hidden compartments, swords and shields sliding into ready metal hands, along with stranger weapons that even a soldier with her experience had no name for. Sokka stood in front of the gateway, and raised his sword, leading the march as the automatons strode forward into the harsh glare of the sun.

Arc, who looked equally as amazed, shook some sense back into himself. He weaved his fingers together, reestablishing the connections he had with the golems, and ran to meet the Incarna. In a matter of moments the parade ground would look like a battle field. Stone and alien metal soldiers clashing and fighting around their two generals.

Suki – oblivious, and stunned from information overload, was staring teary eyed at a sight that almost made her heart stop. Every person who had even a basic education had seen a picture of what people thought the earth looked like, but what she was seeing was beyond words; beyond beauty, and she couldn't look away.

The hanger that the metal soldiers had come from was almost empty now, save for a few machines that had not come online properly. But the metal shields that covered the glass on the back wall was still functioning, and had pulled back with agonizing slowness, revealing an gorgeously clear night sky. And nestled in those countless stars was a breathtaking splash of blues oceans and green continents. Continents whose shape she knew.

Gently rolling across the heavens like it always had, was the World.

- Toph -

Toph was in bad shape. The two golems that carried her here had stopped, and had not moved since. She was pretty sure that Pretty Boy had just set them up and cut off the connection to them to conserve his power for other things; like killing Sokka. Pretty boy was smart too, the way that his little toys were holding her, she couldn't make physical contact with her bare skin. If she had, the suckers would have been dust minutes ago. She spat and clawed at the fabric, but it wouldn't part. She screamed again. One little piece of fabric was all that stood between her saving Snoozle's stupid ass, or him dying, and she couldn't break it! _One little piece of fucking fabric_!

She was still being held off the ground, and it didn't matter if it was only a few inches away, or a few miles; if she couldn't touch the Earth she couldn't see or fight or do _anything_! She swore again and started trying to bite her way out.

Three minutes.

That's how much time he said he would have. How much time had already passed? Dammit, it wasn't supposed to be this way. She was strong. She was supposed to be strong, and here she was being_ defeated by a table cloth_.

What was she supposed to do!

First of all, calming down would be good. Yes, time is running out – so it will be difficult, but panicking is not going to help anything. Breath in, breath out. It's like that mediating crap that her parents tried to get her to learn once.

Now, she needed to get out of here, and then she needed to be able to subdue Pretty Boy without killing him. For that she needed power, but she had never had the amount of power she thought she would need. She could hear the sounds of fighting coming from the parade ground, and none of it sounded good for anyone, especially Snoozles.

What was it that Sokka had said? Something about rock hands... damn Toph think, she growled at herself. What had he said? Something about her being different, meaning that she was supposed to be powerful – or at least strong enough to stop Arckon. Great, so where was all this power.

_'Every other Earthbender I have ever seen has only used the earth by manipulating kinetic energy – physical force. For instance, they stomp down and a piece of stone flies up. Then they kick it in the direction they want. You on the other hand, just gesture and stone moves. The only other benders I have ever seen do something even close to that were Boomie and those Earth-Kingdom guards with the weird stone hands they threw at people. And even then they threw the rocks around. I have never seen anyone able to hold a stone in midair like you can. I looked back through all the memories I have of the Incarna, and I'm not saying I have even a hundredth of them, but there is nothing like it in any of the memories I do have.'_

It's like the key, she though. You have to feel the stone, just like the key. You've done it before; just do it again, but bigger. She called the piece of black steel from around her arm, and squeezed it between her fingers, getting a feel for the stone. Then she crushed it down, and ever so slowly, pulled it apart again, forming it into the shape of a star. She concentrated very hard on the sensations and pulls she felt as she formed it, trying to understand how she was doing it. She could see every side of the star all at once, but she wasn't touching it. _Then how the hell was she seeing it_?

Maybe she was touching it, but just not with her hands?

Toph focused very hard on what was going on between her hands. Sweat was starting to form on her forehead and her head was starting to hurt, but something inside her suddenly shuddered. She gritter her teeth and reached out for whatever it was ... and punched it as hard as she could.

Whatever part of her that she hit, torqued, and then exploded outwards. For an instant she was drowning. This new power didn't feel like it was coming up from inside her – it felt like it was coming from somewhere else. It wasn't like anything she had ever felt before … no, she had felt something like it once.

Back before she had met the gang; back when her parents still babied her too much, her father took them all on a trip to see the ocean. She had begun to get her 'sight' working by then, and although her mother wouldn't let her get too far out into the water – no more then up to her ankles – she was amazed … no that was the wrong word. She was completely lost at the size of the ocean. It was like she was standing on the edge of the world, and out in front of her was a yawning abyss that never ended.

The Earth reached up to her, and she reached back.

The power that she felt was like that; an ocean that had no bottom.

She stretched out her sight, feeling across the ground to where the fight was going on. She could see Snoozles in the middle of a hundred different warriors that were all fighting. Some of then were made of stone, and others were made of the same kind of metal that her armband was.

Arckon was there too, and she could feel his armour. It was smooth and clean; a very pure metal with very few imperfections – but he was using it so inefficiently. He was holding it firmly to his body, and every time he moved, he would bend the metal instead of moving his limbs. Toph was confused. Why was he doing so much extra work. All he had to do was get a firm hold on the metal and hold it at a proper distance from his body, then he could move and it would just stay there, hovering an inch above his skin.

Was this was Sokka meant?

Toph looked closer at how Arckon moved his stone soldiers. Pretty Boy jerked when she looked deeper, but she was sure he didn't understand what he was feeling.

What was he doing?

He was grabbing all of the stone, every single grain of it and moving it separately. That must be exhausting! Why didn't he just move the energy that surrounded the earth, with that he could move a hundred times the earth and metal he does with half the power.

That was it! That was what she did differently.

Toph reached deep into the earth, feeling everything and a plan formed in her mind. She could feel Arckon building something under the parade ground as his stone golems distracted Sokka. It was big, nearly two hundred feet from one side to the other, and it gave her an idea. She pushed deeper, forcing her sight to peer into everything, trying to understand this energy that she controlled. Where did it come from?

Toph started when something touched her senses. As she was looking further into the Earth, trying to find out where the energy she could feel came from, something looked back at her. The Earth moved slowly, like a giant reaching out to her with curiosity, and beneath her feet a endlessly expansive eye opened. It was old, far older then anything she could comfortably comprehend, and it found her curious.

Toph didn't hesitate for a single moment, but pushed forward, searching for that answer that still eluded her. The Being was far bigger then she had expected, and when she tried to push past it nothing happened. Toph supposed that she had been around Aang and Sokka and all their strangeness for too long, because when the Being impressed the thought of laughing in a voice like mountains slamming together on her, she just felt impatient.

The religion of the Earth Kingdom taught that every living thing has a Spirit. Every plant, animal and drop of water in the ocean had an entity within it. Some were as simple as a single idea or feeling, while others were so complicated that no human could ever hope to understand it. Most of this Being was beyond Toph, even if she had a thousand years to watch and learn from it, she would never understand even a fraction of it. But by some random stoke of luck, she was born with an unnaturally strong connection to it.

The Being liked this fearless little human hybrid, and it whispered a few of its secrets to her. In that instant Toph understood; she understood for the first time the energy she used to see and bend, and it ripped though her like lighting, leaving her tingling.

Earth was earth, no matter what state it was in. Move a hundred tons of earth from one continent to another, and it will all still be earth; no bender worth their strength would even notice a difference. Every sensei taught their students this on the first day. Almost every Earthbender knew this, and she was sure there were similar lessons taught to the other elemental benders, but how many of them actually understood what that meant?

Sokka had said that Energy was Energy, whether you called it Chi or Ki or anything else. He also said that people and animals who have a higher 'energy temperature' give off this power, and those who have a lower 'temperature' absorb it. Over the eons some people and even sometimes animals learned how to manipulate this energy. That would mean that there were two kind of energy in the world; internal and external. Internal energy is what 'colder' beings use. They absorb the energy and then manipulate it, bending fire or earth, or in the case of the Gel-Hassad, manipulated spirits. And External energy was power that was emitted by everything, but hadn't been adsorbed by anyone yet.

She could bend both energies, and had been doing it for years. She bend the energies inside her when she 'saw' and during some bending movements; and the rest of the time she was bending the immense and untouched energy around her, using it to bend the stony heart of the planet.

She felt the power flare within her as the forces of the external energy flowed into her, her teeth gritting unconsciously.

Showtime.

- Katara -

Katara fought against her bonds with everything that she had, but she couldn't free her arms; and without her arms, she couldn't bend any water to cut the stone golem that stood perfectly still holding her. To her left Aang fought just as hard against the two that still held his arms and legs tightly. He was shaking his head around wildly, and Katara was pretty sure he was trying to get that face-bending that Boomie apparently had going to work, but it didn't look good.

Toph had gone quiet a few moments ago, but now the sounds of battle filled the silence. Metal screamed as if being torn, and rock shattered as if being thrown from a high place. There were other sounds too; sounds that she could not even begin to understand or name. Strange hisses and a dozen voices calling out an a forced whisper-like shout.

Then there was silence.

For a single heart stopping moment, Katara thought that it was over, her fearful mind conjured up images of Sokka lying broken and bleeding beneath a thousand pounds of rock. She almost cried out in relief when she heart his voice shouting something in that strange language. He didn't sound hurt or crushed.

"Is that all you've got Demon?" That voice was loud, too loud. It was like the Earth itself was shouting. Suddenly and without any warning, the Earth shook like it had been struck by something enormous. Katara thought it might have been Arckon, but it had come from the wrong direction. She turned as much as she could in the grip of the golem, and met two green eyes that burned like hot coals.

Toph was still trapped inside the cloth, and suspended between the two stone men, but her eyes were glowing with power from within. A hollow crunch rolled over Katara as both of the golems were flattened so fast that they were just _gone_.

Toph, still wrapped up in the white table cloth, seemed to fall, but instead of a thud, she landed lightly on her toes, digging into the dust beneath her feet. A deep humming rose from below, vibrating up through the earth and shaking the buildings all around. Toph started to glow a deep green, but the glow wasn't coming from inside her – it was coming right out of the air, and focusing on her, almost like it was draining into her.

Flares of light arced up away from her and almost fifty feet into the sky. Glass exploded and showered them. Katara screamed as the golems holding her and Aang met the same fate, flattening into the earth in the blink of an eye, and she was left on the ground. Carts of fruit collapsed and cracks crawled up the sides of the buildings.

Toph was flaring ribbons of green light almost fifty feet off the ground when the earth split in front of her spread feet. Heat rose up from the crack, making the daytime air weave and jump. A scarlet light came up from the depths of the earth, followed by flaming molten rock. The magma flew into the air and started spinning around Toph, going faster and faster as paper and cloth that was too close to the inferno-like heat burst into flames.

Katara grabbed Aang and they both ran backwards away from the intense heat. They both cried out and ducked as knives, swords, armour, tools and pretty much any other metal including the cutlery off tables and the nails in chairs flew past them to join the flaming orb that was Toph. She seemed to want this new metal for something else, because it didn't grow red hot and melt when it came too close the that flaming ball, that spun faster and faster. Steel was compacted and molded like sand in a playground, before it formed up around the still spinning ball of lava.

"What's she doing?" Katara shouted over the shrieking winds and grinding metals.

"I don't know," Aang replied, looking as scared and confused as she was.

- Sokka -

Nine point eight percent. All systems holding at red line.

Information and calculations were scrolling down past the sides of my vision, and none of them were telling me good things.

I panted heavily; partly to throw off Arckon, and partly because I couldn't seem to catch my damned breath. My sword had been lost during the fight between our soldiers, and I hadn't had time to retrieve it yet. The parade ground that had looked so inviting and warm only a few minutes ago, now looked like a real battle field. Metal and Stone men lay shattered and torn on the ground, different fluids leaking from my metal soldiers like blood, pooling on the dry ground. Some tents were on fire now where stoves or torches had been knocked over in the confusion, setting flame to the thin fabrics.

Damn, I only had two move moves left in my pocket, and once I played them, it would be game over one way or the other. It would buy me another thirty seconds ... maybe. The final band of my speciality Spirit Shapings thrummed warmly on my ankle, waiting to join it's three brothers. Damn Toph, please work whatever you need out quickly.

"I asked you if that was all you had!" shouted Arckon. I could feel his voice deep in my chest, and knew he had to be doing some bending to make it that loud. I glared at his featureless metal mask and gritted my teeth. There were only two or three of his stone men left, and they were all over near Suki; to 'protect' her no doubt.

Suddenly I felt the air all around me cool. For an instant I was startled, because it wasn't the air temperature that was dropping, it was the earth itself. I'm supposed to be this great Spirit Shaper, and spirits are almost always present in every kind of life, so as a side effect most Shapers could almost feel the life in the world and like everything else, such as sounds, people get used to them and eventually stop noticing them … except when they are gone. I don't know exactly when I started to feel the warmth of life – of chi that was always present in the air, but I sure as hell noticed when it started to flee.

I turned to where it all seemed to be flowing, and was startled to realize that it was in the same direction that Arckon had taken the gang. Bloody hell Toph, what are you doing? I grinned wildly as I felt the power begin to coalesce into a single point and dawning realization hit me; that's my little Warrior Toph.

"_Alright metal head, you want to see something else_?" I asked, dropping into a low battle stance, both of my feet spaced far apart, in something resembling that horse stance that I had seen Toph use often. I held one hand behind my back and the other was held palm inward, almost like I was calling Arckon out. _"You want to see what makes a myth? Do you really want to see what I can do with barely a fraction of my power? Fine. Lets see how you like it when I kick your ass all over this festival."_

"And how do you propose to do that?" he asked mockingly.

I didn't give him a chance to continue, and just bolted at him instead. He was expecting it, and shifted into a well executed punch that would probably move my head somewhere down around my waist, but it never connected. I grinned right at his featurless metal face and twisted inward bare inches from his blow, vanishing into the air.

I punched into the spirit world at full speed, not slowing in the slightest, ghosting though the misty body of my opponent. I skidded to a stop on my heels and turned in a random direction, bursting back through to the real world, hoping I startled him. He turned quickly to me, his body still in a defensive posture, but it was all for nothing, because I ran a scant ten feet before launching into the layers of the world once more.

Nine point nine percent. Host body holding in safe zones. All systems holding at red. Beginning full saturation of host body cells – saturation complete.

I felt a warmth spreading through my body as the Incarna bits of me released a cocktail of adrenaline mixed with a hundred other different hormones and amino acids designed to let me touch a fraction of my more – strange abilities. I had to acclimatize myself to the levels of the world before descending all the way past the Spirit World. Yes I had been down that far before, but what I wanted to do called for me to thread my way back and forth between the real world and the Primal Deeps so fast that I could severely injure myself if I didn't prepare first.

I pushed myself faster and faster, fading into the world of Dream, pushing myself to run hard over the sands glittering under the twin moons of Lunarsa and Derenos. I needed to go further; deeper than that… I appeared in the real world again for a second before diving back in and pushing harder.

The Primal Deeps were home of those things more fundamental than even abstract concepts, and was the home of the Archive, but it also had some peculiar features that I needed right now. Time doesn't always flow normally down there; sometimes it flow slower, or faster and on rare occasions, even backwards.

- Suki -

Suki tried once more to push her way past the two hulking golems that held her captive, but like every time before they barely had to exert any force at all to stop her. She blew the hair out of her face and grumbled. Who did Arc think he was, telling her that Sokka was dangerous, and to top it all off he was treating her like a little child – holding her back. She could hold her own in any kind of fight, and so what if he was the dammed Iron Titan; she could beat him down.

But could she still?

Her stomach swooped low and she remembered watching Sokka writing on the air, creating a window out of fire. He summoned up ranks of metal soldiers that seemed to defy all logic. They were metal – just metal. Sokka was not an Earthbender. Suki wasn't to sure about anything anymore, but he was not an Earthbender.

So how did he control them? They were thin as whips and their chests looked like woven strands of silver over a glowing green heart – there was no way that there were people inside; they couldn't be suits of armour.

She moved to the side, and although the golem twitched, it didn't stop her. She needed to see what was going on … she needed to understand.

She could see Arckon still wearing his armour, but she couldn't see Sokka anywhere.

Oh gods, Arc couldn't have killed him could he?

Suki went limp with relief when she spotted Sokka on the other side of the parade ground, running fast as an arrow right at Arc. Suki wanted to get over there and smash both of their heads together – maybe that would make them see sense.

She was just about to make another break for it, when she got the next in the series of shocks that just came coming. Sokka twisted, just like that little orb he flipped like a coin, and vanished in a direction her eyes could only understand as _inwards_. She froze, and gasped when he almost seemed to fall out of the air right in front of her.

He skidded to a stop, clenched fingers digging deep into the earth before he took off again, only to vanish just like he had before. This time he appeared close to Arc, who took a swipe at him with one spiked fist, missing, before Sokka vanished again.

He appeared again, but this time something was different. It took Suki a few moments, but she eventually realized that his right hand was bleeding; like he had punched a wall. The blood was dripping slowly down his fingers as he moved faster and faster.

When he appeared next, his hand was still bleeding, but now the right leg of his pants was shredded, hanging loosely around his knee. Suki was starting to get sick trying to follow him, and it only doubled when he appeared again.

There were two of him this time. Two Sokkas. How was that possible?

They both looked normal, aside from the fast that one had a bleeding hand and torn pants … and the other did not. Suki blinked her eyes several times, trying to get her eyes and mind to work together, but to no avail. They were both still there, and they were both different.

They were going faster now, and the time they spent between disappearances was getting shorter and shorter. This time three emerged from where ever they went. Two were bleeding, but their clothes looked fine. The third wasn't bloody at all. He seemed normal aside from holding his stomach and looking a little winded.

Faster and faster they went until they only appeared for an instant – and they had multiplied steadily. First there was only one, and before long it was five … then ten … and now it looked like there were dozens of copies of the smiling joker, each slightly different. Some had bleeding knuckles, others had torn clothes … and a few were even carrying what looked like long silver staffs.

"Methenem na hevok," one of them called in that fluid language he had begun speaking. Several others called out, shouting nothing that she could understand.

Arckon was strangely quiet. He turned slowly on his heel, trying to watch as many copies as he could. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he didn't like it. "Your cheap tricks will not fool me."

"_Vrai-ne_?" one Sokka asked, grinning madly. He didn't seem to agree with Arckon's statement. "Ghelem ne vaneth_._"

On a signal Suki could not see they all rushed Arc at once, coming in from all sides, phasing in and out of sight like an army of spirits. Arc thrust out a hand, and the metal on his body shifted and contorted, becoming a simple staff in his hands. He began to dance, calling up the earth around him. He created walls and corridors, hoping to channel the incoming unknowns – but they just appeared within the useless walls like specters

"_Silineth ne dremechen__!_" a Sokka screamed and he got in close and deflected two staff thrusts with his palms that just started glowing before he took a hard hit to the stomach and twisted away to escape. As he vanished, three more replicas appeared to take up the fight. Rock and fist flew, some glancing off metal and some striking flesh.

Only Suki saw this frenzied battle for what it was – well, Arc probably suspected, but she knew.

While the chaos ensued, a single version of Sokka appeared over in the far corner, stomped once and then vanished. Suki wasn't sure what he did, but she had her suspicions. She looked behind her to the tiny glowing circle still embedded in a foot print.

"Enough," Arc shouted, causing a huge ripple of earth, nearly ten feet tall to roll out away from him like ripples on a pond. The walls had not held the dozens of Sokkas off, but the move had achieved it's goal. They backed off to a safe distance … at least that's what it seemed like until three Sokkas appeared around Arc.

They all had a band of glowing glyphs in the palms of their hands that seemed to be curling up under their sleeves to their origins on their chests. As one they shouted something, and gave a vicious uppercut. When their fists connected – their knuckles splitting and bleeding – with various pieces of skull the glyphs on their hands pulsed and all hundred and sixty pounds of Arckon and however many more pounds of armour lifted ten feet in the air.

Another Sokka was waiting for him there, and spin-kicked him hard. Arckon had enough presence of mind to try to defend himself, and called spikes up on his armour hoping to deter Sokka from striking again; but they only succeeded in tearing his clothes. Arckon was just getting his bearings when another Sokka ghosted into existence behind him and delivered another glyph assisted hit that rattled teeth and sent him crashing into the ground.

Arckon rose to his feet quickly, gripping his staff tighter. Another Sokka, this one holding a brother staff ghosted into existence above and behind Arc and delivered a hard blow to the back of his plated skull. Arckon was stunned for a moment – just long enough for one of the Sokkas to swipe the staff and vanish away.

One by one the replicas of Sokka vanished and didn't return, until there was only one left standing over a downed Arckon. Blood dripped slowly from his hand and he let the staff in his other hand drop to the ground.

A sharp sound from behind startled Suki, and she turned around. People were everywhere; they were on rooftops and crouched in front of the barricade that Arckon had set up. They must have seen some of what she'd just witnessed, and they were all as stunned as she was. There were a few whispers, but most of them were speechless.

-Sokka-

He knew.

I couldn't help the chilly little smile that fell on my face. He had been stopped the first time, and now he knew that it was just a one time thing. I had no real way to stop him without outright killing him. Hell I was lucky to hold him off for this long.

Green glyphs scrolled down the sides of my vision and my mind settled for the first time. I had gone into all of this blind. Oh, I got feelings now and again, but it wasn't anything solid; and so I splashed around like I was in the shallows, when there was an ocean below me. The White Wolf had told me all that I needed to know, but poor stupid Sokka hadn't understood, at least not at first.

I was a piecing dart.

I was never meant to attack anyone head on. No one worthy of consequence anyway. Yasuragi was a one in an infinity long shot. She hadn't expected me to come in head first, so she had been thrown off. While I was pushing with everything I had forward, she was expecting an attack from below.

I looked around at all the people watching us. This was how I fought. They were my weapons, and Arckon didn't suspect a thing. It had been too long since one of the Jenkotsu fought a real Incarna.

Arckon took a cautious step toward me, and I just watched him. This was it; the most delicate step. If I was going to die it would be here.

"That was your best, wasn't it?" It was a rhetorical question, so I didn't answer. "My father was wrong about you … you aren't powerful. You're a little boy who found a knife. You think you're smart; poke what you don't understand, and somewhere down the line you got lucky. That's all that this was, wasn't it? Luck? No matter, you have nothing left except your thralls."

All around us the ground began to quiver. I shot one last glance over to Suki and motioned for her to back up a little more.

Suddenly and with all the grace of a feather on the wind Arckon slipped beneath the earth as if was nothing more then water. I took a few steps in a slow circle, watching for anything. He had figured out that I didn't have anything else hidden, and now he was going to give one last hit. He had been toying with me ever since he used the Mind Flayer. He could have killed me at any time, but he was being cautious. He waited and watched. He wanted to see if I was trying to lure him into a trap. Now that he suspected that wasn't the case he was going to use his ace.

The ground exploded upwards, raining down rock and dust. I was blinded for a moment, and when I could see again, I got a very bad feeling. It was an arm, stretching nearly thirty feet into the air. It looked crumbly at first, at least before the surface of it hardened with a sound like cracking ice. I backed away as a second arm broke the surface, and they both began working together to pull first a head and then the beginnings of a body up out of the earth.

It wasn't long before it stood before me, in all its terrifying glory. It was nearly fifty feet tall, and was coloured a mottled brown and gray. Some of it seemed to be made of stone while other parts seemed to be compressed dirt; but all of it looked like it could kill me quite easily.

Several tons of stone that wish to step on you can drain the blood from anyone's face.

I ran swiftly to where my sword had fallen, grabbing it up as I passed. Now that it rested in my hands, a helplessly giddy feeling passed over me. How the hell was I supposed to hold off a fifty foot tall monstrosity with a sword that couldn't even cuts it's nails? I had used up all my prepared Shapings, and there was nothing I could create on the spot that would hold it. Everything I had left was laying in wait on the ground around us, and I couldn't use it without some kind of distraction. I needed Toph. He would see it coming otherwise and just slap me down.

Dammit Toph where are you!

"Are you praying to any Spirits or deities?" His voice was oppressive and thunderous, seeming to come from everywhere at once and making my ears bleed. "No? I didn't think so. You think you are a god don't you? You think that they should pray to you, don't you?" He laughed in a voice like shifting stone.

He stepped forward, and the earth quaked beneath his steps. All the stands and festival decorations that were still standing fell, and the people who were still watching from their vantage points gasped and shrieked as the colossus lunged for me. I gripped my sword hard, opening it's pathway into the void. I screamed along with the howling coming from the sliver of pure nothing in my hands, and charged to meet him.

I had been hoping that he would be slow; being as big as he was. I had calculated that I would be able to get three good dodges in before he caught me and it was game over.

I slipped through his pillar like fingers twice and skittered away from a falling hand. I even managed to slice off one of his fingers, but another formed out of the stone almost immediately, and I was snatched up.

He lifted me up to the chest of his titan, and it opened up like a lotus flower, peeling away just enough for me to see him buried in all the stone and earth. He didn't have his silver armour on anymore. It was probably too much work to keep the armour and this thing going at once; like it would matter anyway. There was no way I could hope to cut this thing deep enough to be any kind of a threat.

"That's it. Really?" Arckon asked in an exasperated voice. "I had expected so much more. You scared me at first; I can admit that. The way you threw off that Mind Flayer was astounding. But I can see now it was all just a ruse. Where are all these great feints and distractions Incarna? Where is the pin point precision plans so complicated that the target never sees them until the very end?"

Just when captain airbag seemed to be getting into his stride a cry filled the air and cut him off. It sounded terrible, like tearing metal overlaying a scream of total rage. The sound reach deep inside my stomach and almost seemed to jerk everything around. I knew exactly who and what it was, and even I was scared.

Arckon would never let the enemy know that he didn't understand everything that was going on, so he closed up his chest and vanished from my view; but I knew. He could feel her. He had been so suspicious of me that he had ignored Toph.

Mistake number one. If he really did know Toph, he should have remembered that.

He thought that I was the only threat, because I had apparently 'enthralled' her. He had her clamped down by some of his stone, and even if I would be able to access some of my 'thralls' elemental power, elemental bending was more about the soul of the person than the body. To get the kind of connections I would need to preform magics that would completely enslave and cripple her Spirit. It was nearly impossible for any Shaper to use anything more then simple commands or imperatives when controlling someone; even he had to know that.

The people on the rooftops saw it first, and they cleared out of the way very quickly. The earth trembled under footsteps that pounded faster and faster. Dust rose into the air as something huge ran toward us. It was big, and there was nothing here that could stop her.

I smiled in pride as Toph vaulted over a three story building.

She slammed into the ground, and I felt Arckon stumble for a moment. Jaws opened – teeth made of out shards of torn metal parted, giving way to a bellow that I _felt_. She had managed to construct a body, nearly as big and tall as Arckon's toy soldier, only she made hers out of all kinds of metal. It was a serpentine land dragon of interlocking plates and none of it seemed to be really physically attached to any other part. I was almost going cross eyed trying to understand what I was looking at.

The skin of her machine flowed and boiled constantly, never staying in one form for very long. Metal shifted into the shapes of blades, pots, cups and a thousand other little things before reverting to liquid and boiling_ down_ into the … well, Dragon.

And even that wasn't the strangest part.

Wrists, knees, shoulders … anyplace where there would be a joint, the metal just _stopped_. There was nothing holding any of this together. Even her fingers seemed to not really be attached. Instead a brilliant green energy arced back and forth between the steel parts – almost like lightning. Somehow this energy was holding all that together. Amazing.

Toph charged in a lopping amble – she didn't seem to understand the finer points of controlling her beast, but it worked just fine because Arckon was still shocked to motionlessness. She reeled back and a vicious right hook from a taloned hand shattered Arckon's head. I gaped for an instant before metal fingers closed over me and with the sound of crumbling rock I was torn out of my stony prison.

I was slapped hard into the boiling metal of her chest, but instead of being crushed, or at the least burnt, the metal parted for me and I was carried in surprisingly gently. I was blind for a time, but I could still feel the Colossus moving. I didn't think decapitation would stop Arckon. I hissed when I was passed through something very hot, but got the feeling that all the heat was being held back, and if it wasn't I'd be fried instantaneously.

The next thing I knew I felt something mostly soft, and a little tough wrap around me from behind and growled possessively in my ear. "_Hi Toph,_" I said rhetorically into the darkness, knowing she couldn't understand me. She just held me tighter as I felt the fighting outside intensify. "_Your feel different, what did you do_?"

Something very much like a purr answered me, and since she was fighting the last thing I expected was to feel her lick and then nibble on the back of my neck. "Okay, this is strange ... and very inappropriate for the situation."

A playful growl answered me. Okay something isn't right. I looked inside myself and tried to ignore the fact that Toph seemed to be cuddling closer. A very hard feat indeed, but eventually I got something.

My powers came back to me with a cold that caused Toph to shiver against me. Data scrolled past me. Nine point nine percent maximum capacity. Switching connection to the Archive to Primary channels – complete. Entering cardinal concepts – search completed.

My mouth dropped open, at least until I felt a curious digit coming to investigate. I released my hold on the Incarna state and it faded away from me. "Toph, you have to get control." I said trying to turn around. There was very little space, and almost nothing to grip to get leverage, so she seemed to take it the wrong way. "Ahh, Toph! No stop that, you … AHH!" I heard her chuckle mischievously from somewhere in front of me as she wiggled and almost seemed to crawl all over me.

What was I trying to do? Oh right.

"Toph you're directly in connection to the Spirit of the Earth. You have to get control over yourself. I think it's overriding your higher brain functions, and now you're operating only on instincts. AHH! Toph stop! No don't do that – No means no!"

Damn this isn't working, time for something more. I smirked to myself. "Toph are you so weak that a little spirit can overwhelm you?"

Something shifted, as if Toph were shaking herself free from sleep.

"Don't make me choke you," she snarled. Her voice was thick, like it was whenever I had the unfortunate 'wake up Toph' duty that all of us rotated through.

"You're back," I shouted happily, and went to hug her, but she pushed me away. Damn we didn't have time for this. "I'm sorry, but you_ were_ gone. That was the only thing I could think of to bring you out of it."

"I don't remember any..." she started saying, before I could almost feel her blush. "Oh."

"Toph, I'm very sorry." We flipped upside down, before I heard her growl and the distant sound of rock hitting something very hard meet my ears. "We can argue later, but right now we have to stop him."

"Great, how do we do that?" she shouted as I felt us getting back us.

"Let me back out and distract him for a few seconds. I have something prepared."

The same metaly bellow sounded from above our heads as Toph yelled. I heard something crunch loudly from outside and winced.

Her voice came through, strained and acidic. "It's not stupid is it?"

"No."

"Fine." Then I felt her lips crash into mine and had just enough time to reach for that cold spark in my chest once more before I was thrown back through the rock and heat and into the light.

Nine point nine percent. My Spirit Summoning patterns flashed before me – my connection was complete. I reached out with my Pattern and felt for my target. Something huge and hot touched my mind. It was older than the city, and it was sleepy. It had been thousand of years since this Being had been awoken, and if I didn't do this properly – if it awoke completely, it could destroy all of Ba Sing Se. I had to be very careful.

There was a fuzzing across my perception. The connection to the Spirit was established.

Everything has a Spirit. Every breeze and every plant has a Spirit. Some of them are as simple as a single thought or idea, while others are so complicated that someone could study them for a hundred years and learn nothing. Long ago, before Ba Sing Se was even a collection of tents in an already ancient forest bent to the will of a man who walked as a God, an ancient volcano caldera sat here. It hadn't erupted in memory eternal, but it could be woken up for just an instant.

Time to poke the sleeping dragon.

-Suki-

The two stone men that had blocked her way had fallen to pieces when the first towering beast made it's appearance. Arckon was controlling that thing? She could barely believe half of the things that she had just seen, but she had little time to dwell on it before a second … thing appeared.

The earth shook and she was tossed off her feet for the tenth time as the silver beast – she had no idea who was controlling this one – savagely beat Arckon's construct into the ground. She was afraid for Arc, but what could she do to help him? Both of these things were as tall as buildings! And she could not forget that the silver one had apparently taken Sokka into itself – somehow.

People had started to get braver, and she had some company when Sokka burst out of the silver one's chest, and vanished in mid-air, and stepped out of the air right in front of her. He looked her over quickly, apparently looking for any injuries. Satisfied that she was unhurt he said something to her in his strange flowing language before turning back to the action just as the silver one took a hard right fist to the head.

Sokka took a deep breath slowly letting it out, and the air seemed to get colder. Suki blinked in confusion; was he going to do more of that strange stuff? Suki started as the little circle of glyphs that Sokka left in one of his foot prints suddenly expanded, shooting upwards until it peaked over the heads of the two battling before them. Then another across the parade grounds expanded. And then another, until the four corners of the destroyed battlefield had a green glowing obelisk marking them.

The very tips of the obelisks pulsed, getting faster and faster until they were steady, and more stings of glyphs stretched out, connecting them all together at the very peak, one at a time. That complete, Sokka stretched out both of his arms, like a man reaching out to pluck a star from the sky. The tips of the obelisks flicked once, before ribbons of glyphs twisted and slithered through the air and connected to his finger tips. Sokka gritted his teeth and growled deeply, forcing his fingers to focus those streams of power. They fought him like wild horses, but he eventually got them under control. They smoothed out and thrummed harmoniously with each other.

Suki started when the ring of glyphs that Sokka had created exploded outward, bathing everything with a slight glow and a feeling of static. She shuttered as a cold feeling passed through her. Something was here. She couldn't see it, nor could she describe where it was coming from, but something was here that wasn't supposed to be.

She looked behind her, trying to find the source, but all she saw were ashen faces.

It was hot, and it smelt of sulfur. She knew this smell, but some part of her refused to admit it. What could it be doing in the middle of a city. Surly they would never have built a city here if anyone knew. The ground began to feel warm beneath her feet, and her dread mounted. From deep in her past the sounds of a volcano erupting rolled over her. She was only seven when an island near Kyoshi was erased, but she would never forget.

The air began to shimmer and something seemed to be pressing inward. Suki unconsciously took a step backwards as she felt a tightness overtake her. It almost felt like a stale breeze, except that she couldn't feel it against her skin. Her breath came faster as she felt a presence press down on top of her.

The shimmering heat began to take a form. It rose like the shadow of a mountain into the clouds and pressed the air away from it. Air seemed to rip apart as something came up through the thin veil between the world and something... other. Sweat broke on backs and still waters began to boil of their own accord. The fountain in front of a government building bubbled over it's edges and sent people scattering away from the scalding waters.

She couldn't see the being that had been roused, but she was pretty sure that they could all sense it. They could feel its ancient power; something that could wipe their lives from the face of the earth and not ever notice. They could feel the immortality of it, and it made her feel like nothing.

Arc had taken notice almost as soon as the being made its presence known, but the Silver Dragon had kept him occupied until it was too late.

A sliver of yellow cracked the sky, and screams of terror filled the humid air. The crack widened ever so slowly, until a slitted black pupil as vast and deep as the night sky rolled into view. People were frozen in it's sight; unable to move, or think. It was too real, and they felt their bodies and Spirits straining under its gaze. It was almost as if it was pushing them out of existence by just being too much.

Only Sokka stood straight and stared up unblinking at the eye. He didn't speak words, but rather he spoke to it in something deeper than language. The eye rested on him for an instant before it began to close once more. Just before it vanished from view and the being slipped back into its sleep, it shifted. Arc's colossus was blown apart into a wave of melted droplets of molten rock that splattered over the buildings and set them ablaze. The people were protected by the four obelisks that acted like a shield, glowing painfully bright as they seemed to contain the energy that had been released.

-Arckon-

I awoke to the familiar smell of burnt hair and skin. I groaned and managed to push myself to my feet. What had happened? Most of it came back to me and I quickly readied myself for the next attack. I looked up at the fifty foot metal monstrosity in front of me and felt a quick shot of fear for the first time in months. I reached into the earth, but something was wrong. My armour was there like always, following along under the ground like a faithful dog, but I couldn't call it up this time. It felt as if there was someone pushing down on it as I pulled up.

My eye snapped over to the Incarna in accusation as he slowly walked toward me. He drifted along lazily, looking totally at peace with the world. Was he controlling Toph to … no he couldn't be; that amount of control would be impossible- no mindless zombie could do that. There was another possibility, but if I were to accept that as possible I would be torn about what to do. There can be no hesitation.

The metal golem above me began to come apart as the strange energies holding it together were released. The earth shook and quaked as several tons of steel and iron dropped. Before long a single figure sank to the ground, borne on the last of the metal to the ground. Toph seemed to have also adapted my personal armour as well.

I could feel the grip she had on the steel, and it was strange. I would have called it impossible if I hadn't witnessed it myself. Whatever technique she – I was regretfully coming to the conclusion that the Incarna had no control over her – had used on the golem, seemed to also be applied to this. The metal was a mix of every kind available, and I was pretty sure she had blended it herself somehow. The surface of it boiled and – impossibly – dripped upward like rain, only to pool above her head like some kind of halo.

The Incarna stopped right in front of me just as Toph the Silver Valkyrie stepped up beside him. I watched both of them carefully, while still trying to pull up my armour … or at the very least get my hands on _some _earth. I glared in Toph's direction. How was she doing this? It should be impossible to stop another bender from pulling up _any _earth.

"_Do you see now_?" the Incarna asked in the language of the Gel-Hassad.

I wanted to continue fighting, but I could see a lost battle when it presented itself. "I see that you have no control over Toph. But that does not mean that you are not controlling the Avatar or that other girl."

Toph's gaze upon me was deeply disdainful. "Pretty boy you idiot! He's not controlling anyone. Get your head outta your ass for a few minutes!"

I looked back and forth between them. "I still don't know why your chose to attack here."

"It wasn't an attack! You're the one who attacked first," Toph shouted.

The Incarna closed his black eyes. I felt a great pressure leave as his presence greatly diminished, but I had no doubts that he could recall his power at a moment's notice. That and Toph had displayed powers and techniques that were very... distressing. I waited and watched them to see what would happen now.

"We came here because it is necessary," The Incarna said evenly. "This war is almost lost, and sometime in the near future there is going to be a deciding battle. Depending on the outcome, the Fire Nation could ensure total victory, or the other countries could take the first steps in regaining their freedom."

"I do not see how trying to kill me has anything to do with a deciding battle."

The Incarna smiled weakly. "It was never my intention to kill you. Actually, I just realized during the fight that you probably have nothing to do with the real problem." I watched the Incarna carefully, waiting for his next trick, but Toph seemed to be genuinely confused to hear this.

"But I thought all of this was to help him?" Toph accused.

"Oh, it is; in a round about way," The Incarna said, smiling like he was oh so clever. The expression faltered for a moment as he raised his arm to scratch the back of his head. "At least I hope it is. I am still figuring this all out as I go along, but I think I understand what I needed to do here better now."

"This fight was not about winning, or losing. This fight was about them." He pointed around at all the people who had managed to make their way over the barriers that I had set up, and those that stood on roof tops. All of them were watching us, with something I had not seen in a long time.

They were looking at us, some of them were afraid, others were in awe, but all of them looked more alive then I had remembered ever seeing them. I watched in amazement as a little fight trickled back into them, one by one. You could almost feel it. A physical force was spreading outwards from them.

They had just seen a fight like nothing most of them had ever seen. Cosmic forces being thrown around sure lessened a man who could only hurl bolts of fire from his fists. They watched as Sokka walked over to a nearby flagpole and reached out with a hand, cold creeping across the wooden structure and he lashed out with a boot.

It shattered, the flag of the Fire Nation falling down into the muddy street. Sokka looked down at it with an imperious glare that was completely instinctual. When he spoke, his voice was... not really his own. I don't know what he did, but I had heard a voice like it once.

In a very small town, a long way from here.

"Look upon this, all of you!" he shouted, his voice booming and deeper, deliberate and powerful. Green, gold, violet and ice blue light began to dance over him as he spoke, his face shaded from clear view by a cowl of shifting shadows that settled over him, obscuring the view. "You have seen things beyond what you thought possible. Know that there are greater forces on the march against the tyranny of the Fire Nation than you know. Watch for the signs... and be ready when the time comes!"

I wanted to laugh at him, but as I looked out over the assembled people I could see something in their expressions changing. They looked like they were beginning to feel like there just might be a chance to fight the Fire-Nation … and win. One by one they began to peel off and head away.

He stood watching them all with pride. He was still surrounded by his coloured shield of shimmering light, but his voice was once again his own. "Some of them were already vanishing into the street to tell others. By night fall every person in Ba Sing Se will know what went on here. The real question is what they will do now. "

I snorted, and sneered. "Say all the pretty words you want Incarna, but you won't sway me. I will not let you control these people either."

"We're here to help you, dumbass!" Toph shouted in her normal elegance.

"I don't know where you're getting your information, but I do not need help," I growled, as I finally gave up trying to pull up any earth. Toph had much more potential than I first thought.

The Incarna looked deep into me with eyes that had only moments ago been black pools of darkness; windows into the very heart of the Void. His confusing shield of light faded away as he watched me, with a tiny smile at the corner of his lips. I stared back at him with all the malice I could manage. I tried my hardest to stare him down, but he just stood there and watched me. This was the thing that had orchestrated that deaths of countless people, and yet he was looking at me with… sympathy?

Every word my father had ever told me; every proof that I had ever seen that he was a heartless demon was thrown into doubt for one single second. How could a being who had leveled cities look at anyone with honest sadness and pity. He couldn't understand me! What did he understand about pity even? He loved no one but himself. He was the Destroyer that led to the annihilation of a continent and the death of an entire race! The death of an age of wonder like nothing that we would ever see.

"People are not always as they appear," he said softly. "You more than anyone should know that."

I hesitated.

-Sokka-

I watched as the mask of anger that Arckon seemed to always wear slowly cracked. It wasn't much; not yet. But there was a single doubt in his mind about me, and that's all I would need. I gave him one last assuring smile and was just about to go see where Katara ad Aang had gotten off too, but I suddenly remembered that there was one last piece to the puzzle.

"Oh, and Arckon?" He looked back to me, and his reactions a lot slower than they were mere seconds ago. "When the city sleeps, come find me in the Lotus Garden."

I turned and began to walked across the rubble and broken wood. Behind me Toph let her control over his armour drop and matched my strides. "I didn't get half of that. I thought we were here to help him?"

"We are, among other things," I replied. "And I'm pretty sure we accomplished that. He was never going to change in an instant; his beliefs were too ingrained for that. But we put the facts there and drew his attentions to it. I'm not going to pretend to understand my own plan, but I do know that I accomplished what I needed to."

Toph snorted. "You've outsmarted yourself then? Brilliant Snoozles, brilliant. Life is never simple with you is it?"

"Hell, I'd settle for it just making sense again," I quipped back.

"Sokka! Toph!" my sister shouted as she ran across the parade grounds. She looked to be in good heath. I never expected Arckon to have hurt her, but it was reassuring to see that she was fine.

"Oh," I gasped, just remembering. "Hey Toph, can you grab up all the... machines I brought through? It wouldn't be good if all that tech got into the wrong hands … or even just curious ones."

"I suppose," she agreed. I caught Katara in a hug and when I was finally able to put her down I tugged her in the direction of the Lotus Garden. Beside us Toph raised an open hand, and with a quick movement clenched it into a fist. As she did that every piece of black steel and other assorted bits flew together into a ball about the size of my head with a terrible crunch.

I winced as all of that tech was compressed into a ball that had to weight at least four tons. "I was thinking about trying to repair it."

"Well you should have said something sooner," Toph said grinning her wicked grin, and I couldn't help but grin back.

"Wow, you guys really smashed everything up," Aang said in amazement as we past when might have been a food stand.

"Can't take you anywhere," Toph muttered, shaking her head.

"You were the one with the three story tall incarnation of destruction."

"Details, details," she laughed waving it off.

We walked down the streets, and Katara kept checking to make sure I was okay in between asking Toph what she did. Seemed I wasn't the only one who couldn't quite seemed to find the right words to describe their power. I let them talk on and even struck up a conversation with Aang, but I was really watching the people around us. I watched them dart into shops and begin talking frantically, waving their arms around.

I had a good feeling about this.

That should have been a sign.

The sun was just starting to dip low in the sky when the gang plus Piando-sensei finally made it to the stone overhang that we had left Appa and Momo in yesterday. Damn was it only yesterday? It felt like weeks.

Aang was getting a vigorous bath from Appa and Momo was up to his usual creepiness while I watched Piando making the last alterations to the ball of interlaced Spirit Shapings.

"So, it's like a doorway to another place. They call it a portal and I managed to make one work while I was fighting Arckon."

"That is very impressive," Piando-sensei said pleasantly.

I blushed. "It wasn't much."

"It sounds really hard," Katara said looking on in interest at Piando's skillful fingers as they wrote and meshed the final coordinates into the spell with almost no effort. It made my spell look like splitting wood with explosives.

"Nah, not really. There's a really strong beacon up there, and all I had to do was have a general idea where it was and push a lot of energy into the spell. As long as I got it in the general area the beacon locks onto the portal and does the rest itself." I recognized all the Glyphs he was using but I would have never thought to have use them like that. I suppose just having a crap load of knowledge dumped into my mind is no match for experience.

"My portal was very unstable and nothing living would have made the trip without ending up a drooling zombie. That's why I had to use the automota or else I would have just used a whole lot of the bio-suits."

"The what?" Toph asked, scrunching up her nose in a very cute way.

"Who what?"

"You mentioned something called a bio-suit," Katara answered.

"I did?" I asked in confusion. "Huh, weird. I have no idea what those are." Katara smiled motherly, to say it was okay and Toph just rolled her eyes with a comical snort.

"It is done," Piando-sensei said, as the growling orbs went from a dull green into a brilliant florescent. Two more floated just behind his head

"Come on Appa," Aang called cheerfully, leading the lumbering giant over. "We need to go for a little ride."

"So we stick to the plan, okay?" I said authoritatively. "I don't want any of us to get hurt. They have enough soldiers on those airships to subdue the city; we won't stand a chance in head on combat."

"We know," Toph said. "You've told us this ten times already. We're just going to circle around in a wide pattern, making sure not to get too close. We'll be careful, but they should be surprised enough not to be able to get any defence together that quickly. You point out which ship Azula is on and we hit it hard. You do your magic stuff and throw the green ball at it and it gets transported to the other side of the world and then we get the hell out of there with the third orb. I'm sure all three of us could repeat your whole plan word for word."

"Sorry," I admitted sheepishly. "It's just that I kept having visions about what could happen if she got here. I don't want any of us to get hurt."

"Course not, but you got the shiny new me to kick their asses," Toph shouted confidently.

"And lets not forget Katara," I laughed. "She's going to be just as scary as you very soon." Katara blushed prettily again. She had denied it up and down ever since I had told her that she had a lot of sleeping potential in her as well. "I may have jump ahead a little there but I am still the weakest of us, and I'm still pretty darn awesome. Now enough yammering; lets go."

One by one we clambered up Appa's side and dropped into the saddle. I took up my position in the front where Aang usually sat and prepared to activate the first orb while attaching the other two to the insides of my palms for quick triggering. They appeared as spinning circles of green glyphs that made my hands glow just a little.

"Ready?" I got three affirmatives and nodded to Piando before triggering the first orb. Streams of glyphs spun themselves through the air and began to wind around each other in front of Appa who just yawned. With almost no energy discharge a window punched it's way clean through one side of the world and out another.

"Yip yip." I edged Appa through the opening.

Dozens of airships burned with the fire of the setting sun, stretching across the horizon and past both sides of the portal.

* * *

Be sure to check out the forum. Some Topics are** Toph's Power, The Incarna **and** The Tokka-ness! **Check them out. New Topics: **Arckon – The Man Behind The Steel**


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